Fate Bites, Literally
by dancinglemur
Summary: Anna is dead and the Count lives. But, there was one more Valerious, and Dracula seems bent on making her life Hell. But Zara isn't going down without a fight. If he gives her Hell, she's gonna give it right back. NEW CHAPTER UP!
1. Family

Family

"Damn it!" Dracula roared, storming around the abandoned Valerious home, kicking a globe through a stained glass window.

Sighing, he collapsed into a chair, holding his head in his hands as his rage fled, leaving him hollow once more.

It had only been a year since Gabriel had killed the count's look-alike and Anna along with him. Dracula was torn between elation that _finally_ the last of the Valerious' were dead and he would be left in peace, and a feeling of loss for his unwilling bride-to-be.

But, Vlad couldn't shake the feeling that he had overlooked something; that something was dangerously wrong.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and a bullet embedded itself in the wall next to the vampire's head.

"What the hell?!" He leapt out of the chair just as a young woman jumped through the open window, smoking gun in hand.

The count raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest as he examined the woman who had just tried to kill him.

She looked to be in her early to mid 20's, though the black mask around the bottom half of her face made it hard to tell. Her curly, brown-black hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the top of her head, the tied hair curling down around her black-clothed shoulders.

"Today you die, demon!" She yelled, pulling out another, bigger gun.

Dracula rolled hi eyes. "Oh _please_-" But, when she pulled the trigger a small wooden stake flew out of the gun, pinning Dracula to the wall through his chest.

There was silence in the room, as the woman stared, on guard of any attack that the vampire might launch, and said vampire staring down in dumb surprise at the large wooden pole that currently occupied the space that both his heart and lungs normally used.

"I-I did it!" The girl whispered in shock after it became apparent that the vampire wasn't about to attack, pulling down her mask as she walked across the room to stand before the shocked vampire.

This being the same "shocked vampire" who remained shocked for about .0001257 seconds after she came within his reach.

The girl gave a strangled gasp as Dracula's hand shot out to grab her by the throat, the other pulling the stake out of his chest.

"Nice try, darling, but it'll take more than a stake through the heart to kill me." He smiled cruelly, his hand tightening around her throat, sending her to her knees.

"Now," He hissed, fangs growing, and his eyes glowing an unearthly blue. "Who are you?" The girl opened her mouth, but Dracula cut her off. "If you lie, I will know, and it will be all the worse for you."

"A- Aisha…V-Valerious." Dracula's teeth and eyes snapped back to normal and he dropped the gasping girl on the floor, staggering back. Now that he thought about it, without her mask, Aisha was the spitting image of Anna.

"You lie." He refused to accept it. "The last Valerious died a year ago." He snapped at he girl.

"A-Anna? You killed her!" She ran at the undead man again, this time armed with a silver knife, only to be knocked back with a backhand across the face that sent her spinning into a desk.

It didn't take a genius to conclude that Dracula was _not_ in the best of moods.

"Do not attempt to try and kill me again, you foolish, stupid, little girl." Dracula hissed, fangs inched from her throat. "For 450 years, all those stupid fools I am ashamed to have once called _"family"_ have tried to kill me." Fangs bared in a humorless smile, he continued as he picked her up by the back of her shirt, "And as you can see, none have yet succeeded. Here I am, perfectly and completely undead." Dracula threw her to the ground. "I am already annoyed. To enrage me more would be a fatal mistake. And besides, it was not _I _that killed Anna, but Gabriel Van Helsing" He spat out the name in hate as he walked over to where Aisha lay and picked her up by her ponytail.

"Now, tell me, are there anymore Valerious' out there?" Aisha shook her head no "LIAR!" Dracula threw her across the room again. Appearing behind her before she hit anything, Dracula caught Aisha up by her neck and slammed her up against the wall. Leaning in close, he whispered, "I'll ask you once more, and only once: _Are there anymore Valerious' out there?!!_" This time Aisha nodded yes, tears of shame leaking out of her tightly closed eyes.

The count smirked. "That's better. How many and where?" She bit her quivering lip, shaking her head again, only to scream out in pain as he slammed her against the wall again.

"No!" She shrieked, frantically shaking her head as he continued to slam her into the wall. "I-I won't tell you!"

She knew that the information he wanted would condemn the rest of her family for all eternity. She wouldn't tell him, even if, she shuddered here, it cost her her life. Even though she didn't want to die, she wouldn't tell him. She couldn't.

Finally, once it became clear that she wouldn't tell, Dracula released his hold on her neck. Aisha slid to the floor, leaving a crimson streak behind on the ornate wall, a large ring of bruises around her neck.

She just lay there, gasping for breath and from the immense pain in the back of her head. Dracula was very hungry by now from the scent of the blood on the wall and figured that the woman before him required a gentler touch in order for her to give him the information he desired more than any blood.

He knelt beside her and whispered seductively in her ear, "My dear, if you just tell me how many more of your family there is, I might persuaded to let you live to go back to your home." Her head shot up.

"Wh-what?" He smiled.

"All I desire is to know about your family." She weakly smirked.

"You…should know…you w-were…once p-part of it…"

Dracula imagined several scenarios that all involved a violent, painful and bloody death for her all in the space of two seconds. But he kept a calm outer appearance and merely smiled.

"My dear," He continued as he gently helped her to her feet. "All the family _I_ knew died, or so I thought, last year, and I must admit that I am curious about _your_ little branch of our…dysfunctional family. After all, here we are, you, my some amount of greats niece, and I, your some amount of great's adopted uncle, and we've just spent the past few minutes trying to kill each other." This coxed a weak smile out of her, and an inward retch of disgust from the vampire.

"So, my dear, what say we come to a compromise?" She gave him a look of distrust and suspicion. _Ahhh, so young Miss Aisha here isn't as dim as I thought. She at least knows enough to not trust a vampire. This may be entertaining yet…_

"…and what exactly would this compromise ask of both of us?" Dracula gave her a charming grin.

"A legitimate question." Ignoring her confusion over the word "legitimate", _She must be illiterate…_ The vampire decided, he continued, voice as smooth as honey, slowly coaxing the young woman before him to her doom. "You shall merely give to me the information of you and your immediate family, and why you've escaped my knowledge for so long."

"And in return?" He gave her another grin, this time without the fangs.

"I will not kill you." She narrowed her eyes.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"I swear it on the loyalty of my dearest friend." Even though she was still a bit suspicious, Aisha slowly nodded and staggered across the room to the desk, shoving aside papers as she searched for one particular thing.

After a few moments, she grabbed a parchment and opened it, looked at it for a moment, then frowned, and said "no…" and tossed it aside. This process was repeated again and again until Vladislaus thought he would go insane. Finally, she grabbed one and didn't toss it aside, grinning before turning to show it the vampire and revealing it to be the Valerious family tree. "Here." She traced a circle around a blank space of parchment with one gloved finger.

"There's nothing there." Dracula growled, trying to keep his bloodlust in check.

"Now. But," She limped over to the window. "When the sun shines through it, you can see the hidden branch of my family." She looked over her shoulder nervously at the vampire. "We live in America." She didn't seem to notice that she had just told him where they lived.

"Interesting." But Dracula wasn't staring at the parchment, but at Aisha's throat instead.

"One last question." Aisha looked up at him, hope shinning in her clear brown eyes. Dracula smirked, in anticipation of feeling her warm blood run down his throat.

"What?"

"Where _exactly_ do you live?"

"We-" Her mouth snapped closed and she glared at him. "I'm not telling you!" He shrugged.

"That's all I needed to know, anyways. And now, my dear…" She relaxed a bit, obviously looking forwards to going home. But then, his hand shot out, partially crushing her windpipe with the force that he grabbed her and slammed her against the wall once more.

"WH-what?" She squeaked out, eyes wide in panic as she gagged against his hand. "You-you promised!" Dracula smirked.

"Yes I did. I promised on the loyalty of my dearest and best friend." Hs face twisted in hate. "The same man who just one year ago, killed what he believed to be me and felt no remorse about doing so." He buried his fangs in her neck, not even giving her a chance to scream.

As he finished and she lay dieing where he had dropped her, he knelt down and whispered in her ear, "And that man would be Gabriel Van Helsing."

**-THE NEXT DAY-**

"Master! Master I have it!" A young vampire ran into the great hall of Dracula's icy palace.

"Give it to me." Dracula dropped down from where he had been standing (upside down on the ceiling) and grabbed the parchment away from the man. There were the names, outlined in ink so they could be read.

"Excellent." The count said to himself, dismissing the man with a wave of his hand as he sat his desk, unrolling the parchment and just staring at it for a moment, his finger tracing the names.

"Excellent." He said again, and then remembered one tiny detail.

Aisha had only said that they lived in America.

America was quite large.

They could be anywhere.

"DAMN IT!"

**Update: 7-31-07 **


	2. The Begining

**A/N: This was reposted on 7-31-07**

The Beginning

_Tonight ends the family of Valerious…_ Thought Dracula as he sat in the room of one of said Valeriouses, internally laughing at how one of the adults of the household was walking around right under his feet and had _no idea what-so-ever_ that not only was her greatest enemy in her daughter's room, but also that this was her and her family's last day alive.

Bored, and waiting for the sun to set so that his plan could begin, Dracula silently glided around the room, examining several items that caught his attention.

Finally, after finding entertainment in mangling a few pillows and rearranging everything on the dresser (he'd sure be around to witness the confusion after that) Dracula ended up standing over a small nightstand, looking down over several framed pictures, picking up the first caught his eye.

There was a picture of two girls, arms slung around each other's shoulders and smiling. He didn't take time to closely examine it, but noticed that one was blonde and the other was a brunette before moving on.

The second picture he saw had a very ornate frame, so he picked it up to examine it closer. After he got bored with that, he shifted his eyes to the occupant of the frame. It was…_ANNA?! _The vampire staggered back, the picture dropping from his long-dead fingers to shatter into a million pieces on the desk.

"What was that?" He heard from below him, grabbed the picture from the frame and fled out the window into the cloudy afternoon.

"…huh?" A pretty brunette woman in her mid 40's stuck her head into the room and blinked at the shattered glass all over the nightstand, and then over at the cat sleeping on the bed.

**OUTSIDE **

Dracula lounged in the shade of a large tree just outside the window and out of view of everybody, turning the picture over in his fingers, ignoring the slices the glass fragments he had accidentally picked up and the background noise of a woman shrieking at a cat.

Now that he actually looked at it, the girl _did_ look extraordinarily like Anna, but there were noticeable differences.

The structure of the young woman's –she looked to be in her late teens, the vampire noted- face was a bit different, the cheekbones more prominent, the nose the tiniest bit shorter. The girl's skin was a bit darker, but the smile was the same, as was the long, curly brown hair.

The biggest difference though, was the eyes.

While Anna's had been the same chocolate brown as her hair, the eyes of the young woman in the picture had the most peculiar coloring. They were somewhere between a deep forest green and sapphire blue, resulting in a dark teal, blue-green coloring.

Curiosity aroused, Dracula waited patiently for the woman to leave, and then tucked the picture into his vest and went back into the house to mess more things up.

This time, he entered the house quickly as a stray cloud covered the sun, slipping onto the balcony on the second level and through an open window.

_This must be the girl's room. _The vampire decided as he surveyed the poster-covered walls around him and sneered in disgust as he navigated the cluttered space.

Dracula brought a few more moments of amusement by stealing the dust-covered art kit he found in the corner (never been used) and took the silver and green paint before using one of the brushes to paint his dragon crest on the white closet door.

Grinning, he dumped the used brushes and paints into the ornate trash can underneath the cluttered desk, and then exited the room, settling himself in the shadows outside of it to wait.

o0O0o

Zara Valerious, or Zara McKean as she was now known, was falling asleep.

Her head hit the desk with a dull thump that only her best friend, Alana Hawkins, seemed to notice. Or so it seemed.

Alana giggled, trying to stifle the sound so their math teacher, Mrs. Alda, wouldn't notice.

Alana got away, Zara didn't.

_Smack! _"OUCH!"

"Miss Hawkins, I would advise that you try and _stay awake_ during my class." Though since Mrs. Alda was Transylvanian, it sounded more life this: "Miss Hawkins, I vould advise vat vou try and _vay avake _during my class."

"Yes ma'am." Zara muttered, holding her head (which had just been smacked by a ruler,) mumbling under her breath, "Prude."

"Vat vas vat Miss Hawkins?!" Mrs. Alda screeched in Zara's ear, nearly deafening the poor girl.

"N-nothing, ma'am." Zara stuttered. Mrs. Alda was _scary_.

**LUNCH**

"Huh? Hey, Zara!!" "Eh? What is it _this_ time, Matt?" Zara asked, hoping with all her heart that it wasn't another imitation of her falling asleep during Mrs. Alda's lecture.

"What's that on your hand?" Zara blinked a few times, and then looked down at her hand. "Oh. That." "Yeah, _'that'_. What is it?" The teenager stared at it in confusion, before slowly answering that she had no idea what it was, and that she'd just been doodling.

"It looks like one of those crest-things the crone was babbling about." Matt put in. "You know, that silver and green one? Now whose was that…?" Ala's younger brother stared off into space as he pondered the owner of the dragon crest drawn in sharpie on the brunette 17-year-old's hand.

**NEXT CLASS**

Their next class was English 12 (yes everyone but Matt are seniors. Matt is a sophomore) and the teacher seemed to be playing hooky.

No one really minded though, and the whole class took it as a sort of free period. Zara was doing homework while Ala stared out of the window, and judging by the dreamy look on her face, she was fantasying about her boyfriend, Adam.

The duo's friend, a mocha-skinned girl by the name of Monica, was observing her bleached-blonde buzz cut in her sequined compact, simultaneously making sure that the orange rhinestone star was still cemented to her cheek.

Orange was Monica's color of the week.

Last week it had been red, the week before that, pink, and then white, and before that, some shade of black, and so on. Right now, the teen had on a neon orange tank-top layered over a tangerine tank, with tan/orange cargo pants rolled up to the knee, an orange belt hanging off of her tiny hips, and orange suspenders that, instead of going across her chest, hung off under her non-existent butt. And on her feet was a pair of Pumas that were that same combo of neon and tangerine orange.

The orange necklaces, sweatband around her right wrist, the orange designer watch around her left, and orange streaks in the hair, not to mention the orange-tinted sunglasses (and the orange eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, foundation and lip gloss (citrus scented -and flavored- or so Monica claimed)) was a bit much, though.

Ala made this known when she returned to Earth with a "Jesus, Mon! You smell like a freaking orange!!"

"Tangerine, actually. But thank you."

"Um…Mon?"

"Yeah, Zara?"

"I don't think that was a compliment."

"Eh?" Monica pushed her wrap-around sunglasses and finally viewed the world as it was meant to be seen: not through an orange haze to glare at the blonde who had insulted her with eye that, while normally brown, were now a scary neon orange, thanks to her special contacts.

**AFTER CLASS**

"She's evil. _Purreeeee evvvviiilllllll_ I tell you! It's the weekend! It's unfair!" Alana made her face all dramatic as she moaned over the amount of homework that their evil History teacher had given them.

"Well then, you should've done it in English like _I_ did, instead of staring out the window and sighing while you doubtlessly thought of your boyfriend." Zara made kissy lips for the last part of this sentence, and acted out her best imitation of her friend: staring off into space with an absolutely silly look on her face while sighing dramatically.

Ala acted all hurt and didn't talk to her friend until they were at the base of her driveway.

"Hey Zara! I'm havin' a party tonight! You wanna come?!"

"Do I?! Of course!" Then Zara's face fell. "But my parents might not let me. You know how they are on full moons."

"Once again Zar, your parents are _freaks_." Zara sighed.

"Tell me about it. See ya Ala!" She waved as she ran up the driveway to her home. "Hey mom! Hey dad!" She yelled as she came bursting through the door and immediately ran towards the kitchen, where she knew her mom would be.

o0O0o

"MOM!! Please?" Zara gave her the puppy eyes but her mom remained firm.

"No. You can't go."

"Why not?!"

"Because."

"That's not an answer!!"

"Too bad. You're not going."

"_WHY?!! _It's just a full moon! What're you afraid of?! _Werewolves?!!!_" Zara screamed at her parents, before storming up the steps and slamming her bedroom door behind her. She fell face-first onto her bed, where she began to sob her heart out, until her mom yelled through the door,

"Stop it, Zara! You're not fooling anyone!" Zara lifted her head out of her arms, eyes completely dry and began to pout.

"Phooey."

Outside of Zara's window, crouching in a tree, a dark shadow chuckled evilly, wearing a smirk that showed all of his freakishly long, sharp, white teeth.

Turning to a young man on the ground beneath him, he snapped,

"Follow her if she leaves..." The man bowed and ran off. Turning back to the window, he purred, "Soon this troublesome business will be over and done with forever."

o0O0o

Muttering about "stupid freaking rules", Zara stormed around her room, stomping so loudly that she could hear the chandelier shaking beneath her floor.

That's about when she stepped in the paint.

"What the?!" She lifted up her foot only to stare in confusion at the silver and green paint that coated the bottom of her sneaker. "Where…?" She gently set it back down, wincing at the squelch it made when it hit the carpet. _Eeewww…_

And _that's _about when she looked up.

"…the hell?"

**DOWNSTAIRS**

"Should we tell her?" Zara's mom murmured to her husband, who sighed,

"Yes. She's almost 18. I think she deserves to know now." She smiled at him and slipped her hand into his, squeezing it in reassurance. They started upstairs.

o0O0o

"Who the hell do they think they are?" Zara snarled, glaring at the huge dragon-thing on her closet wall. "Vandalizing MY room like that?!" She whirled around and viciously kicked her sneakers off, not even wincing when they crashed into the wall and bounced off, leaving behind a green and silver splat on the white wall.

Zara began to pace back and forth angrily, stopping frequently to boot anything unfortunate enough to cross her path. _Damn that little freak named Matt! I am going to have __**something**__ to say to Ala's __**brat**__ of a little brother at that party- _"Oh no! The PARTY!!!"

It took Zara only a few seconds to decide on what to do.

"They think they can keep me here?! Well they're wrong!" She snarled, opening her window and shivering slightly in the October breeze.

She turned from the window, returning with a jacket that she pulled on over her black tank-top as she threw a leg over her windowsill, and then stopped to think about what she was going to do. _Is a party really worth all the trouble I'm gonna get tomorrow?_ But then she heard her parents coming up the stairs, and a little voice in the back of her head urged her on, and so she swung out of the window, landing on the balcony outside of it.

A few feet above her head, on the main roof, Dracula smiled down at the unsuspecting girl below him. It would be so _easy_ just to swoop down and spill her blood. But, he held himself back. He wanted to test the last Valerious. For the past 121 years (did I do that math right? 2007 – 1886, right?) he had slowly been whittling down the last branch of his family, so now only these three remained.

Down below, Zara leapt down onto the grass just as her parents opened her bedroom door.

"Zara? _ZARA?!!!_" With one last look over her shoulder, Zara ran into the woods around their house, not seeing the large shadow on her roof.

**-ALANA'S HOUSE-**

The doorbell rang, and a blonde teenager pulled herself away from the crowded, sweaty dance floor to cross into the foyer and open the door.

"Hey Zara! Come on in!" Alana greeted her friend. "Wow! Your parents let you come?" Zara gave a sheepish smile.

"Actually… well, no. I snuck out." Alana gasped in mock surprise, her hazel eyes dancing with laughter.

"Well, anyways, there's someone I want you to meet." Alana led her friend through the mayhem to a boy who looked to be about year or two older then themselves. "Zara McKean, meet Thomas Farkas. Tom, this is my best friend Zara." **(A/N: Farkas means "wolf" in some language. Guess what Tommy is.) **

"H-hey." Zara stuttered, feeling a little shy around the boy, who gave a heart-stealing smile.

"Hey." Zara tried to hide her sudden blush by looking the boy over.

He looked to be about 18, which made him about a few months (at the least) older than the two girls, with curly brown hair and green eyes. He was about 6 feet tall, which meant he had a good five inches on Zara and was a little less than half a foot taller than Alana, who was five feet and five inches tall.

"Wanna dance?" He offered Zara his arm, bowing, mischief glinting in his pale green eyes.

"Sure." And Zara was swept away into the crowd by Tom, leaving her friend to giggle and gape as they twirled around to the music.

"How'd you learn to dance so well?" Zara asked, slightly dizzy from all the spinning.

"My Ma-… my dad taught me."

The night passed in a blur of laughter and fun for Zara as she and Tom danced many, many times, they all played games inside and out of Alana's house, and eventually all settled down to watch a movie together.

**-LATER-**

"Bye Zara! Bye Tom!" It was past midnight and Tom had offered to walk Zara home, and she had accepted.

"Aww, the moon's covered." Zara pointed up at the cloud-covered moon. "I love full moons, don't you Tom?"

"Nah. I've always like new moons better." Tom glanced at the sky, a look of fear briefly crossing his face. Zara saw this briefly out of the corner of her eye, but let it go as nothing as they neared her house.

"Well, thanks for walking me home Tom." Zara smiled as they stopped in front of her door, he smiled back.

"You're welcome." Zara opened the door and then stopped, turning around to face Tom, grabbed his wrist and dragged him inside.

"What-? Zara?"

"I want you to meet my…mom and…dad." Zara dropped Tom's hand, and it flew to her face. "M-Mom? D-Dad?" No reply.

Her father was sitting in his favorite couch, his head slumped forwards.

"D-Daddy?" She shook him, and he fell over, eyes wide. "Oh my God. H-He's d-dead!" She screamed, falling back.

"Z-Zara?" A weak voice called form the kitchen.

"MOM!" Zara ran into the room to see her mother lying, almost dead, on the kitchen floor, a wooden stake covered in some black substance on the floor next to her.

Falling to her knees by her mother's side, Zara grabbed her hand. "Mom, what happened?" Her mother coughed up blood.

"H-_He_ came." Behind her, Tom's eye twitched.

"Who?" Her mother continued on, almost like she had forgotten what she was talking about.

"Darling, y-you s-sh-should k-know t-that you-your name isn-n't McKean. I-It's Valerious."

"What-?"

"No t-time darling. T-take this." She drew something out of her jacket and passed it to her daughter. "R-read it and let _no one_ t-take it from you. I-I l-love you-" Her mom never got to finish her sentence because at that time, a huge, brown wolf _thing_ leapt out of nowhere, killing her mother in the most gruesome way possible right in front of Zara.

Screaming and beginning to cry, Zara fell back, a small, red book with a golden cross on its cover in her hands. Clouds covered the moon and Zara stared in horror as the beast transformed back into Tom.

"Oh my god." She gasped, backing into the wall, only to find Tom in front of her.

His hands shot out, hitting the wall on either sides of Zara's face, leaving bloody hand prints on the flower-patterned pastel wall.

"W-why are you doing this?" Tom smiled sadly.

"I don't have a choice Zara. My master wants all the Valerious' gone and now you're the last one. But," He frowned. "For some reason, he doesn't want me to kill you now, when it would be so easy." He shook his head, a bemused look on his face. "Instead, he wants me to test you. So…" He stepped back into the moonlight. "Run, Zara."

Zara ran.

On her way out the door, she saw a small silver jack-knife. She grabbed it and continued to run. _Now_ she understood why her parents had insisted she have something silver with her at all times.

Her small black and silver cross necklace bounced up and down as she ran into the woods, hearing Tom's howl close behind her. _Werewolves can't climb trees, right?!_ She mentally screamed as she leapt for a high branch, easily swinging up onto it just as Tom ran into the clearing. _Now I know why mom and dad had me take gymnastics. I only wish I had taken them up on karate lessons too._ She looked down and saw Tom looking around, and then up at her, his golden eyes locking with hers, and he smiled.

It was the scariest thing that she'd ever seen. His brown muzzle contorted into a grin that was anything but friendly, and the glint in his beady yellow eyes was far from comforting.

She screamed and started to climb faster, not stopping until she was at the top and looking over the forest and the houses it bordered.

The tree lurched, causing Zara to screech and throw her arms around the trunk, holding on for dear life. Looking down, she screamed. Tom was about to jump! _OhmyGodohmygodOH MYFREAKINGGOD!!!! _

Quickly, Zara shoved the small book into her jacket pocket, and took out the small knife, snapping it open and gripping it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

The werewolf that was previously Tom jumped, swiped for, and missed Zara. Zara in turn swiped at him with her knife, missing him as well. But on his way back down Tom grabbed her leg, dragging her out of the tree.

They fell, twisting through the air, both trying to get into a position where the other would hit the ground first.

Zara won.

She heard a dull snap as she landed on the werewolf and then bounced off to lie a few feet away. She had landed on her left leg, and if that snap had been anything to go by, it was probably broken. At the moment, she couldn't feel anything, but she knew that in a few moments, she wouldn't be able to think straight from the pain.

It was now or never. Do or die.

As Zara scrambled around for her knife, Tom was recovering from the fall. "Got it!" Zara grabbed the knife and turned, still on the ground, just as Tom leapt for her.

There was a dull sound of something sharp being forced through muscle and bonebefore everything was reduced to blood and darkness.

**A/N: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I feel so evil. R&R! **

**Update: wow, this went from 2 to…7 pages…wow… **


	3. Sad Goodbyes

**A/N: Hiya peeps! Did ya like the clifie? –Cackles evilly- and, unbelievable as it is, I made a mistake. –Gasp of horror- I know, it's shocking. But, this actually takes place a _year_ after the final battle instead of a month. And, I am now depressed. I just found another Fanfic with THE SAME IDEA AS MINE! Thankfully, after I read the first few chaps, I realized (and started to breath again) that though the ideas are the same, the fanfics are different. 4 example, in the other 1, the last Valerious meets Dracula in the second chap, whereas in this 1, Zara won't meet our fave vampire till chap 4 or 5. Enjoy! **

_Thinking_

**(Dancinglemur talking to readers)**

(Character talking to readers)

"Speaking."

Sad Good Byes

Dracula leapt out of the sky, landing in his human form, looking over the wreckage the fight had caused.

Braches littered the ground and there was blood. Lots of it.

And in the middle of it all lay Tom and Zara.

Tom, in his human form lay on top of Zara, her knife's bloody point sticking out of his back.

Dracula pulled Tom off of her, throwing aside his body, after all, the boy had been expendable; and looked down at the last Valerious.

Zara lay on her back, blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth, one leg twisted at an awkward angle, a long scratch down the side of her face…and a bite on her left forearm.

The vampiric count cocked an eyebrow. _So the boy managed to bite her. This could be useful. That is, as long as she doesn't fight back like Gabriel. _Gently, he picked her up, moving her to a quieter part of the woods, lying her down against a tree.

Noticing she was shivering, he unclipped his cape, settling it around her shoulders. He decided to leave the bite and the scratch, though he healed her broken leg.

Healing done, he brushed a stray brown curl out of her face, noticing that she, like her sister, was almost identical to Anna.

A dark grin came to his face and he tilted her head back, exposing her neck. Extending his fangs, he leaned in, biting into her neck. Though, unlike he had with her sister and father, he didn't drain her of all her blood, though once he had tasted her blood, he was sorely tempted to do so.

Leaning back, he licked his lips clean of any excess blood, healing the holes in her neck with a touch of his finger tips.

"Until next time, little princess." He purred, melting back into the shadows.

Zara woke with a start, before pitching forwards, holding her neck.

_Damn! What the hell? Why the feck does my neck hurt so much? And my head? And…my…arm **Feck**._

"Dammit!" She yelled, looking down at her arm in horror.

_It **bit** me! If he wasn't dead already, I'd beat the crap out of that sorry scumbag called Tom._

With a groan, Zara pulled herself up and began to limp towards Alana's house.

­_-DING DONG-_

"Hm? Wha-?" Alana dragged herself out of bed and opened the door to see Zara standing there, clutching some sort of black cape around her and bleeding badly.

"Zara? What-!" Then Zara collapsed into her friend's arms.

"MOM! DAD!"

**-A WEEK LATER-**

"_TRANSLYVANNIA!"_ Zara and Alana yelled at the same time.

Alana looked like she always did, perfect. And Zara…wasn't looking that hot. Her left arm was in a sling and the long scratch on the side of her face had needed stitches. And, much to Zara's displeasure, they were pink.

"I can't go to Transylvania!"

"Yeah! Zara can't go to Transylvania!" Alana's dad sighed.

"But Zara's only living relative lives there and according to the law, that's where she has to go."

"But I thought she was gonna live with us!"

"Yeah! I don't know _anyone_ there! _And_ I can't speak Transylvanian or Hungarian or whatever!" Zara smirked, confident she had caught Alana's dad.

"Your uncle volunteered to teach you." Zara's face fell and she began to sulk.

"_Feck_."

"You're leaving in 2 days."

**-2 DAYS LATER-**

"Bye Ala."

"Bye Zar." The two friends hugged briefly, crying.

"Write me ok? Here's the address. Maybe you can come over sometime." Zara geld out a piece of paper, which Alana took, before bursting into tears again and hugging her friend.

"Bye." Zara waved as she walked onto the plane, a backpack over her shoulder.

She took her seat at the window and looked out at her best friend standing there, and tears began to leak from her eyes.

"Goodbye." She whispered as the plane took off, immediately lost in the thick grey fog.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Zara took out her customized purple ipod, picked a random song and leaned back into her seat, closing her eyes.

"**Out of Control" by Hoobastank**

_I've done everything as you say  
I've followed your rules without question  
I thought it would help me see things clearly_

_But instead of helping me to see  
I look around and it's like I'm blinded _

I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me  
Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you  
I don't understand what you want from me

I feel like I'm spinning out of control  
Try to focus but everything's twisted  
And all along I thought you would be there  
(Thought you would be there)  
To let me know I'm not alone  
But in fact that's exactly what I was

I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me  
Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you  
All of the things you've said to me

I may never know the answer  
To this endless mystery

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me

Is it a mystery?  
Is it a mystery?

I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control...

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me  
Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you  
All the things you've said to me

And I may never know the answer  
To this endless mystery

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me

I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
_Out of control_

The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her awake.

"Miss? We're here."

**I've decided 2 b nice and not give u another cliffie. Read on oh readers! And don't forget to review! If u do, I'll…give u a cookie! Or, if you'd prefer, have Dracula give u a hug! Or VH. Your choice! **


	4. Exploration

**A/N: ok, when I redid this, the original version was **_**painful**_** to read. How did you guys manage? Reposted 7-31-07**

Exploring

**Zara POV**

"Are you sure this is the right place?" I asked the poor man who was carrying all my stuff. He looked absolutely _terrified_ with the prospect of having to go into the castle and I didn't blame him.

With a sigh, I turned to him. "I can take it from here. Go back home to your family." The guy stared at me for a moment, before grabbing my hand and kissing it, tears in his eyes.

"Thank you and God be with you." He dropped my stuff and ran as fast as he could back down to the village, leaving me staring at his hastily retreating back. "Oooooooookay…then." _People here are weird._

I turned back around to see a young man before me. _Umm…ok. _"Hi!" I greeted him cheerfully, waving with my good arm.

"Hello. Miss Zara, I presume?" He asked, smiling like he was in pain. Creepy. "Um… Yeeeaaaahhhh, that's me."

"Here. Let me take your bags." He grabbed two bags, but when he reached for the third, he stopped and quickly walked into the castle.

_Very_ confused, I grabbed it and walked inside.

_Oh. It's a __**silver**__ handle. Which means he's a werewolf! _**(She's slow!) **

"The master will great you later in the evening." The man said, putting down my bags in an all gold and purple room. "I trust the room he picked for you is to your liking?"

"Yeah. It's ok." The guy bowed, before walking out of my room, closing the doors behind him.

"What am I doing here?" I groaned to no one, flopping down on the huge bed. "I know! I'll call Ala!" I flipped open my cell phone, only to groan when I realized that the thick stone walls had killed any hope of reception. "Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Throwing my cell phone at my bag, I curled up into a ball, hugging one of the plush pillows with my good arm as I looked around my new room with depression. With a sigh, I turned over so that I was face-down in the plush bed, and groaned,

"I wanna go home."

Home as in New York, with the city just on the skyline and my house, where I could go out on the balcony and listen to the city's music. _That _home. Not some castle on the other side of the world with a village that looks like it's stuck in the 1800's.

o0O0o

After staring at the ceiling with contempt and melancholy became boring, Zara decided that some exploration was in order.

That decided, she swung her feet over the side and bypassed her shoes, deciding instead to go barefoot on the cool stone floors.

She pulled open the heavy door with some difficulty, ending up having to brace her good shoulder against it and push off of the door frame with her foot until it was wide enough for her to slip through.

That done, she quietly strolled down the cold hallway, admiring the torch-lit (didn't the place have electricity?) portraits on the walls. "Wow…" She stopped and looked up at a huge portrait at the end of the icy blue and black hall.

It was of a very handsome man, who was lounging in a chair and looking as if he owned the world. He had pale skin, which contrasted harshly with his raven black hair in a way that would probably look horrible on anyone else. His hair was pulled back into a fairly long ponytail at the nape of his neck with a silver clip, but a few stray pieces of hair fell stubbornly in front of his piercing blue eyes- oh god, his _eyes_…

Zara was staring, she knew she was. (She just prayed that she wasn't drooling as well.)

But could you blame her? She'd never seen eyes like his before. They were a heavenly, (ha! "heavenly"…and though I completely and wholly agree, that is a _very _ironic adjective to use…) piercing blue that seemed to be looking right at her, even through the picture. They had an amused look to them, one that matched the self-confident smirk on his lips that said: "I know something you don't know."

The only part about the picture that she didn't like was the three women dressed like whores that had draped themselves about him, fighting for his attention. She glared at them before she caught herself and slapped her forehead.

"God, I'm such a loser…getting so worked up over a _painting_…what is _wrong _with me?" And with that rhetorical question, she turned and walked down the adjourning hallway.

o0O0o

After walking for a while, she finally saw a hallway leading away from the one she was in and off to the left. As she stared down it, trying to decide whether or not to follow it, she suddenly heard the slamming of a door down the hallway she was currently in, followed by harsh voices arguing in a garbled language she couldn't understand.

Sensing that it wouldn't be good if they caught her poking around, Zara dashed down the adjourning hall without looking back.

Unfortunately, the voices followed her, and Zara could now see that they belonged to three short ugly guys dressed in rags, metal plates and goggles, as well as the tall, lanky werewolf who had taken her bags earlier.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" The werewolf shouted as he and the three short ugly ones started to run down the hall towards her. Zara squeaked and ran.

And they, of course, gave chase.

She ducked around a corner and warily backed away; keeping her eyes on the corner she'd just turned as she tried to regain her breath, backing up into the wall so she couldn't be seen around said corner.

That's about when she fell through the hidden passage behind the tapestry.

o0O0o

With an unheard scream, the teenager tumbled and rolled rather ungracefully (and backwards) down the sloping passage, knocking her head with every roll and doubtlessly bruising every inch of exposed skin.

But, when she finally tumbled out into another hallway (where she laid, her back on the carpet and her feet propped against the wall in the awkward position she'd crashed into it in,) and righted herself, she found no bruises that she could see and her bitten arm didn't hurt at all.

"Huh…weird." But she gave it no second thought and staggered down the hallway.

o0O0o

The next stop was a small brown trapdoor.

Zara had found the small brown trapdoor when she'd tripped on the rug and grabbed another rug-type-thing on the wall and dragged it down with her, tearing it from where it'd been hanging for who knows how long.

Oh well. It was ugly anyways.

But, back on topic. Just as she was debating whether or not to enter the trapdoor, it swung open all on its own. "Huh…I must've knocked it open when I fell…" And without a second thought, Zara walked through it and into the dark and musty passageway.

o0O0o

Barely resisting the urge to start humming a _The Phantom of the Opera _song at the sight of the long dusty hall dotted with flickering torches and candles, Zara strolled down the hall with a slight bounce in her step at having successfully escaped the other werewolf and little freaks unharmed.

But, her good mood eventually wore off and she began to search for a way out of the boring, repetitive hallway. "FINALLY!!" She shouted in happiness as a door came into view, and she happily bounded right up to it, grabbed the handle and pulled…

…only for it to break off in her hand with a loud clank, and then dissolve into a pile of rusty flakes. "…Oops…" She paled considerably. _I hope Uncle or whoever doesn't come down here often…_

But then the old wooden door creaked open, and the wave of cool air that it brought tempted Zara inside with the promise of a way out of the catacombs.

o0O0o

Humming a tuneless song to herself, Zara bounced down the black stone hall. Why bounce? Because she was bored, that's why. So, Zara bounced down the black hall, her bare feet no making a sound on the thick and dusty carpet. "Ah HA!" Seeing another large black door, the young Valerious wrapped her tapered fingers around the obsidian doorknob and pushed it open.

"Hmm? What's this?" She was in a large black stone room with a high, lofty ceiling. There was an expensive-looking blood red carpet with gold embroidery depicting two black battling creatures under her feet. Zara couldn't really make it out too well since she was too close, but the bat-like thing on the right seemed to be beating the… furry-thing on the left. (She was too close to see what it was. The bat-thing was a no-brainer because it obviously had bat wings,) "Huh…" _Strange…_

Softly treading circles on the carpet, Zara turned to look up at the high ceiling. She was admiring the beautifully carved obsidian gargoyles, (or more accurately, grotesques, seeing how they weren't spouting water. SEEE? She DID pay attention in art class!!) when hundreds of red eyes opened simultaneously to stare back at her.

With a surprised shriek at the sight of the bats, Zara stumbled backwards, her eyes still locked on the furry creatures above, only to trip when something hit the back of her knees. She fell, turning as she did so, trying to see what she'd tripped on.

The left side of her face flared in pain, and she tasted blood. With a groan, her eyes fluttered open, and her right hand –fingers splayed out for balance- was beginning to turn numb with cold.

"What the…?" Her panicked exhalation of breath was accompanied by a small cloud of smoke from the cold. She was sprawled out across a large obsidian slab, the center of which appeared to be "…ice?"

She pushed herself up, hissing in pain as the left side of her face throbbed. As she sat there, half curled into a ball with her head in her hands, she began to hear a slight whooshing noise.

She slowly opened her eyes to see something vaguely black underneath the ice. Slower yet, almost reverently, she brushed off the slight sheen of water her body heat had raised to see what lay beneath the ice. It was a bit blurry, so she waited patiently for her eyes to focus and realize what they were seeing. When they did, her eyes widened and she sucked in a surprised breath.

"What the-" Something small and furry hit her in the side of the head.

Distracted from the trance the ice held her in, Zara's head shot up, only to freeze and turn as pale as the ice beneath her. With a panicked scream, she pushed herself back off of the stone, falling ungracefully to the floor, where she curled up in a ball with her good arm over her head and softly whimpered in fear as the bats angrily swarmed around her, forming a live column around her as they hit her with their wings on every pass.

It was absolutely terrifying.

They seemed to be mad at her for some reason, and their wing beats were creating small gusts of air that seemed to be whispering …_have_ _disturbed the Master…will be displeased…go away…go away… you shouldn't be here…go away…he'll be mad…go away-_

"ENOUGH!" A heavily accented male voice sent the whispering bats flying away, shrieking in pain and fear. Cautiously, Zara lowered her protective arm and gasped as the man from the painting looked down at her from where he stood in the coffin –for she could now see that that was what the stone really was- with the melted ice filling the air around them with a white haze.

_Uh oh…_

"I-I…" Her breath caught in her throat as she stared up at him with a mix of fear and fascination. "Wha-who…?" Slowly he stepped out of the coffin, his knee-high black boots clicking on the stone floor. His captivating azure eyes locked onto her wide and terrified teal ones, freezing her in place as she tried to back away. "Who are you?! What are you doing here?" She shakily demanded, sounding braver than she felt.

And he knew it. He could tell that she was filled with both terror and deadly curiosity, and maybe, just maybe, even attraction at the sight of him. She could tell by the way his eyes lit up, seeming to glow in the dark room as he smirked darkly down at her.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you why _you _are here?" He drawled, his husky accent sending a visible shiver down her spine and made her skin crawl and her nerves fizz, both in a pleasant way. His boots clicked on the floor as he calmly strode towards where she lay, one of her legs out in a straight line, the other bet at the knee with her hurt arm cradled to her chest and the free one unconsciously curling and uncurling into a fist; practically frozen with fear. So swiftly she barely saw him move, he was suddenly crouched behind her.

Slowly, almost as if she was afraid that he would attack if she moved to quickly, Zara turned her head so that she was looking at his pale face, which was suddenly _way _too close for comfort or for the ability to breathe normally to work.

Icy fingers traced up the side of her bare neck to cup the back of her head and he began to draw her closer to him. Her breath hitched again and her pulse skyrocketed, pounding in her ears. _Oh no oh no oh no oh no… _"Wh-what are you-?" His unearthly blue eyes seemed to take up her entire line of sight. Cool breath floated across her face and her vision began to go dark.

'_**Sleep, Zara Valerious...sleep…' **_And she did.

o0O0o

Her eyes snapped open, expecting to see azure eyes above hers, but instead were met with the sight of the royal purple canopy that she could have sworn was above her bed, in her room, on the other side of the castle.

She sat up and frowned as she saw that she was indeed in her room. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what had happened. She remembered walking down the halls, the painting, the two trapdoors, the catacombs, the coffin room, the man-

As she shook slightly in fear at the memory of him and his eyes, she suddenly felt something dark and foreign in her head. Panic seized her and she grabbed her head and her eyes flew open, searching for something that would give a clue to what was in her head. The shadow swamped her vision and brain, making it seem like she was in a pitch black room.

Two glowing blue eyes snapped open right before her, the same ones the man had. Zara tried to move, but she couldn't – the shadows bound her in place and she began to visibly quake in fear as the mysterious man slowly approached. His silhouette bent over her, and then he and the darkness were both gone.

A second later, she couldn't even remember what had just happened, or anything that had happened in the coffin-room. There was a huge gap in her memories, and it made her feel like a piece of her was missing.

A sudden knocking at her door almost gave her a heart attack. This was expressed by her over-taxed nerves making her scream and spazz, as well as falling off of the bed.

"…ouch…" She moaned, picking herself off of the carpet, and rubbing her head.

"Miss? Miss Zara, are you alright?" The muffled female voice was filled with concern and Zara sighed and hobbled over to the door.

"Yes?" She groaned after the door was opened, looking sleepily at the older girl before her. The servant girl blinked her green eyes down at the teenager, and then smirked.

"Come this way, please. The Master requests your presence at dinner." Zara frowned at the older girl.

"Wait a second, I have to change." As she turned back into the room to look for new clothes, she asked over her shoulder, "Why do you call him 'The Master'?"

"Because that's what he is." She lazily drawled from where she was leaning on the door frame. Zara glared at the dirty-blonde girl.

"That's not at all helpful." An amazed look came over the other girl's face.

"You don't _know!_" She softly gasped. "You really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" The older girl looked shocked, and then amused and was suddenly laughing so hard that she was bent over and holding her gut as she started to laugh so hard she began to cry.

"What? _What?!!_" Poor Zara was hopelessly confused. "What's so funny? What don't I know?" But the older girl just kept howling in laughter, and the younger of the two could hear her gasping about something that would "…be funny as _hell _to watch him try!!!" She also could've sworn that she heard something along the lines of "…seducing…" and "…convincing…" Convincing was OK, but seducing?

_She's insane. _Zara decided as she watched the older girl laughing so hard that it was surprising that she didn't hack up a lung.

Finally the fit passed and the maid waited for Zara to change into more presentable clothes, letting loose the occasional snicker as she did so. Finally, Zara decided on a knee-length black and swishy, (which is surprisingly a word, according to my computer) a nice, white long-sleeved shirt and brown sandals with her hair up in a messy but elegant bun with several wavy strands hanging in front of her face.

She was very happy that her arm had healed to the point where she could now use it normally, as long as she didn't overtax it and she celebrated that with the slightly clinging shirt, which would've been hell to get an injured arm into.

As she nervously smoothed over the front of her shirt, the older girl let loose her barking laugh again. "You're _fine_, really. Now come on!!" And she bounded down the hall with an inhuman grace, leaving Zara to gape at her retreating back. "Come _on!!_" She yelled from a hundred yards away. "You'd think that you'd never seen a werewolf run before!"

"I haven't." Zara said dryly as she came up besides her companion. "At least not running _away _from me. The only one I saw run was more interested in _chasing_ me." The blonde blinked her emerald eyes down at her as they walked down the hallway at a calmer pace.

"Oh… Well, we're here." The werewolf pushed open a large, ornate door, ushering Zara inside.

'Inside' was the biggest, fanciest room Zara had ever seen. In the center was a large table, set for dinner. But there was only one place set. The doors slammed behind her, making Zara give a small scream as she whirled around, heart pounding.

"Did I scare you?" She whirled around again, ignoring the hair now falling into her eyes, and seeing a man standing behind her, dressed all in black, his long black hair pulled back into a ponytail with a clip.

Something about him, perhaps his icy blue eyes, seemed familiar to Zara. She frowned as she tried to remember where she had seen him before. "Do I know you?"

"We've met before, but you probably don't remember me." He seemed to be silently laughing at his own private joke as he pulled out a chair for her to sit down in. "Now, would you like something to eat?" Zara smiled gratefully at him, not noticing how his eyes deepened in color.

"Thanks, I'm starved." After she had devoured a bowl of soup, Zara looked across the table at her host, who was watching her eat. Immediately, she lost her appetite.

"Aren't you going to eat?" He smiled, sending chills down Zara's spine.

"I already did."

"…Oh, o-ok…" There was a moment of awkward silence, before Zara asked, "Are you really my uncle?" Dracula raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"You don't look anything like me and my parents never mentioned you. What's your name anyways?"

"You certainly have a lot of questions." Zara shrugged.

"So I've been told." There was silence for a moment as she sipped from her glass of water. Then, fiddling with her unused fork (there were, like, _twenty _beside her plate and she had no freaking idea what to do with all of them) she shyly asked, "What, um, what is it exactly that you do?" She didn't have to look up to see that one or both eyebrows had just gone up and that there was an amused smirk on his face. Did he ever _not _smirk?

"I own a private business. And I lord over these lands and the village down there." A lazy, uncaring sweep of his hand took in the quaint little 1800's village below them, visible through the uncovered, floor-to-ceiling windows that took up one entire wall.

The fork she was (attempting to) spin(ning) on one finger clattered loudly to the floor as she tried to stop her jaw from touching the table. "L-lord?" She squeaked, her teal eyes huge in her face. His smirk widened.

"Yes. Lord. This land and village have been in my family for centuries." Zara blinked.

"Wow…" After a few more minutes of silence, which Zara spent gazing in awe down at the little village, she asked, "So…what's the business?"

"That's a lot of questions." Now _she _smirked.

"I never said I was quiet."

"True." He stretched, almost as if he'd forgotten her original question while she waited expectantly.

"It's a protection business." He finally said, making her frown slightly.

"Like…bodyguards?" He nodded.

"Yes. We've even protected your president on numerous occasions. I rent out my guards to almost every royalty in the world. It's been a family business for several hundred years. Once, we even protected Hitler and Roosevelt. At the same time. We actually shaped that war through manipulating them both."

"Uh huh."

"It's true."

"And I'm the Queen of England."

He smirked, running his eyes up and down what he could see of her figure. "No you're not, my dear. The Queen was here just last week. A nice woman, but a bit…wrinkly. And you are _anything _but wrinkly." He breathed, his eyes smoldering in an almost sexual way at her.

Zara flushed red and frowned, crossing her arms uncomfortably. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Staring at me like I'm something to eat." The maid who had fetched her from her room was clearing the plates at this time and almost dropped the plate she carried when she snorted at this, as did the two other servant werewolves.

A glare from him sent all three scurrying, but once they were again in the kitchen, both could hear them laughing hysterically.

An awkward silence stretched through the room after the laughter faded, the teenager squirming uncomfortably under the man's blue-eyed stare. She tried meeting his gaze, but every time she did so, she could only hold it for a few moments before she would blush and look away. And so the silence stretched, Dracula finding infinite amusement in his guest's discomfort. He could've stayed there all night, but he'd lied when he'd said that he'd already eaten, and if he didn't sate his blood-lust soon, he might attack Zara. And that would not do.

"Well, not that this hasn't been absolutely _fascinating_, but I'm getting tired." Dracula stood. "And, perhaps some of the answers you seek are in that little red book of yours." Dracula bade her goodnight and strode out of the door, leaving Zara gaping at his retreating back.

_How does he know about the book? _Was her first thought. Her second was _Oh great. I'm living with a perverted psycho. _

o0O0o

After dinner, Zara sat in her room, thinking about the strange, twisted reality her life had become and her mysterious host.

Rebelling against his suggestion of reading her book, Zara looked out of the window to see that it faced away from the village, so she wandered around until she found a window that did.

What she saw almost made her faint.

**A/N: I know its corny/cheesy/horrible, but I had fun re-writing it. Reposted: 7-6-07**


	5. Conversations With the Dead

**A/N: -snicker- I love cliffies. Enjoy! Also, since the site deleted it, all names are from babynames dot com. Last, there's a commonly-used VH fic thingie at the end of this chappie. PLEASE don't over-react and flame this story!!! Please!!**

Conversations with the Dead

_**RECAP**_

_Zara looked out of the window to see that it faced away from the village, so she wandered around until she found a window that did._

_What she saw almost made her faint. _

_**END RECAP**_

A huge human-like bat _thing_ was circling over the village, and even behind the thick glass, Zara could clearly hear the terrified screams of the townspeople. The bat dropped, reappearing a moment later with a young girl in its claws.

It bent its head down to the screaming girl's neck and the girl's struggles increased for a moment, then stopped altogether. Wiping its mouth of her blood, the bat dropped the girl's empty husk back down into the village, before picking up an old man and doing the same to him.

"Oh my God." Zara felt the bile rising in her throat and ran for a bathroom. Just as she left the bathroom, looking for her room and a glass of water, Zara ran into her 'uncle.'

"Hello, Zara." He smirked. "Out for a stroll in the moonlight?" Zara raised her eyebrows as she scowled and crossed her arms across her chest.

_Does he know? How could he? _"I had to go to the bathroom. Goodnight." She walked off.

After about a half an hour of searching, she got back to her room. By now it was midnight, and Zara fell asleep the instant her head touched the pillow.

o0O0o

The next morning, Zara woke to grey skies. Sitting up in her bed, she hugged her knees to her chest and gave a dejected groan of frustration.

She _wanted_ to cry for her parents, but she wouldn't. Not now. She needed answers; her parent's death had not been a random occurrence. Tom, the stuck up jerk that he was, had mentioned a "master", and Zara had a suspicion that whomever his "master" was the one who'd killed her father and almost killed her mother.

_Wait… _Suddenly, Zara made a connection she hadn't seen before. For as long as she could remember, members of her family had periodically died – or, now that she looked back, had died of a strange disease that was like ammonia in how its victims had died of mysterious blood loss. Or in other words, killed by the "master", whoever _that _was. "Damn them." She growled.

_Well…there's nothing I can do while I'm out here in the middle of __**nowhere,**__ in some godforsaken castle with a relative I've never heard of before…_

Groaning in annoyance, she took out her laptop from one of the suitcases, not in the mood to unpack all her stuff. She logged onto AIM, yelled for a few people to log on, was ignored, and then remembered that today Ala didn't have ballet, of whatever that dance-thing she took was.

**Dawnprincess: yo Ala! U out there?**

**Mrs. VH has signed on.**

**Mrs. VH: Hey Zara! How's things in the vampire state?**

**Dawnprincess: **_**wow**_**, ala. So funny I forgot 2 laugh. **

**Dawnprincess: n e ways, its incredibly boring. Theres no service 4 my phone and it's ALWAYS CLOUDY!!!! It ttly sux –frowny face- **

**Mrs. VH: I feel your pain**

**Dawnprincess: no. no u don't**

**Mrs. VH: -smirk- true true sigh and now that your gone, THERES NOTHING 2 DO!!!!!**

**Dawnprincess: smirk **

**Mrs. VH: whats your uncle like?**

**Dawnprincess: he doesnt look 40, lemme tell u that**

**Mrs. VH: meaning…? **

**Dawnprincess: … it means he looks a helluva lot younger. But, something TTLY creepy happened last night!**

**Mrs. VH: what?**

**Dawnprincess: I was looking around 4 a window that looked over the village, since my room faces away from it. And when I finally found 1, there was this HUGE CREEPY bat-thing flying over the village, and it sucked the blood of 2 villagers!!!!**

**Mrs. VH: whoa, hold up. VILLAGE?!!!! Do u like live in a friggin castle now or something?!!**

**Dawnprincess: -shifty eyes- **

**Dawnprincess: maaaaayyyyyybbbbeeeee…. BUT! Back 2 the topic!**

**Mrs. VH: whatever… **

**Mrs. VH: Zar, did u have sugar last night?**

**Dawnprincess? **

**Dawnprincess: no**

**Mrs. VH: then I guess we can cross 'sugar-induced stupor' off of the list of things that caused your nightmare**

**Dawnprincess: it WASNT A DREAM!!!! **

**Mrs. VH: nightmare**

**Dawnprincess: WHATEVER! U have 2 believe me! And if u dont, then see if your parents will let u come over here 4 a week or 2. please? -puppy dog eyes- **

**Mrs. VH: fine. C ya Zar**

**Dawnprincess: bye! –airkiss-**

**Mrs. VH: –airkiss- **

**Dawnprincess has signed off**

**Mrs. VH has signed off**

Sighing, Zara placed the laptop on her desk and turned on her radio. Flopping down on her bed, she closed her eyes and let the music wash over her in an attempt to clear her mind of the day's confusion. It didn't work, and little suspicions about her host were still creeping into her brain, so she turned the volume up even more. When it had reached eardrum-bursting level, she happily sighed as it effectively stopped any and all conscious thought.

When Dracula neared his home to hear music thrumming through the walls, he was curious. When he landed in his room to hear it even louder, he was a bit amused. But when it prevented him from sleeping, he just got annoyed.

Down in Zara's room, her stereo suddenly stopped working, to her annoyance. And a few floors above, Dracula smirked as he heard her yelling and shouting at it to start working again.

o0O0o

After day had fully set in, Zara picked up the book her mom had given to her. She read about her family for a few hours, but everything seemed to stop when she reached the section on someone named Aisha.

"What-?" It was only a page and a half long, mainly centering on how she had _willingly _betrayed her family while she tried and failed to kill Count Vladislaus Dragulia, in the process revealing the Valerious family's hidden branch and getting herself killed.

Her hands, gripping the small book, began to turn white at the knuckles, rage and shock shaking her slim frame. _It's this, this __**whore's**__ fault that Mom and Dad died? HER fault that I'm living halfway across Earth from all my friends and everyone I know? HER FEAKING FAULT that I'm stuck in a castle with some guy who's supposed to be related to me, but I've never heard of and look nothing like? _

With a scream of fury and disbelief, she threw the book across the room as hard as she could. It hit the wall with a loud crack and bounced to the floor, its pages falling open. Zara ranted and raved over her ancestor, throwing pillows across the room, kicking furniture, and even accidentally putting her foot through the window.

After she had calmed down (and dragged a footrest to cover the hole in the window,) she finally crossed the room and picked up the book. Even though what she had just read still filled her with rage, her mother had given her this book, and she intended to keep it.

After making sure it was alright, she opened it up to the contents and skimmed, before "Dracula" caught her eye. With increasing anxiety, she gripped the book even tighter than before as her heart pounded with each word she read and the words began to melt together, until only the most important stood out.

'_Adopted by Valerious the elder…betrayed and murdered by his best friend…vowed to kill all of his adopted family as they vowed to kill him…tricked Van Helsing into killing Anna Valerious…killed the American Valeriouses one by one over the next 120 years…' _An ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach as she slowly turned the page with a shaking hand, try and failing to quell the growing suspicion.

She froze, breath hitching in her throat as she stared down at the portrait of Count Vladislaus Dragulia, and her fears were confirmed.

Zara was looking down at a portrait of the very man who, according to every legal system on the planet, was now her guardian.

Oh Hell.

o0O0o

"DRACULA!!!! WAKE _UP_, GODDAMMIT!!!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!!" Zara screamed, pounding on the door to Dracula's room with her newly-healed arm.

"What is it?" Dracula asked from behind her. She whirled around, and Dracula could now see her tear-stained, furious face.

"_You _did this. _You_ killed my parents, AND THE REST OF MY WHOLE FREAKIN' FAMILY!!!" She screamed, throwing her book at his face.

He caught it, throwing it aside as he effortlessly blocking and dodging all the kicks and punches she sent at him. Seeing that that wasn't working, she turned quickly, grabbed a vase out of the niche it sat in on the wall and threw it at his head. Biting down a curse, Dracula dodged it and advanced down the hall as she retreated away from him, grabbing everything she could find that was light enough to throw at his head. Finally, he appeared behind her so that she bumped into him and he could grab the priceless sculpture out of her hand.

"Give it back!! I'm going to bash your head in with it!!" She struggled with him, but was no match for his strength and only ended up knocking herself to the floor, where she sat panting and glaring up at him.

"Yes. I did." Zara stiffened; anger turning her blue-green eyes a color that was more an acid green than ocean blue with fury.

"How can you be so calm about it? And, if you're so eager to kill off all of my family, then why'd you have me come here?" She hissed as an unseen force lifted her to her feet.

"Because," He smirked. "You're going to be my next bride."

**A/N: -sigh- I'm still not happy with the way this chapter ended up, but please review. **

**Updated: 7-31-07**


	6. The Maze: Part One

**A/N: bleh **

**Reposted: 7-31-07**

The Maze- Part 1

"W-what?!" Zara stumbled back a step as the count took one forwards, smirking darkly, his eyes a stormy blue-grey.

"You heard me Zara, but I'll pity you and repeat myself. You're going to be my next bride, and I think that having the _last _Valerious as my newest bride is quite fitting." He disappeared, and Zara stumbled back a few steps, and into someone's arms.

Long, pale fingers wrapped around her tan wrists, pulling her back into a cool body.

"I think this will tarnish the Valerious name for good, don't you Zara?" Dracula's breath stirred the top of Zara's dark brown hair from behind.

"Seeing how I've spent all but the last few days of my life as a McKean and not a Valerious, I wouldn't know." She snarled at the count, trying to move so she could see him. "And as for your offer, thanks but no thanks. I have no desire to become a breathing corpse." Dracula chuckled, his dark, rich voice sending a shudder down Zara's back, from what she did not know.

She struggled with him again, trying (and failing) to break free. She screamed, pulled, thrashed, stepped on his feet, and even tried to break his nose with the back of her head, but nothing worked. So she stopped trying and caught her breath, uneasy in the dead silence that was only broken by her gasps for air.

"What does it take to make me your…" Zara clenched her hands. "…bride?" she whispered, determined to stop whatever it was from ever happening. She liked being able to walk and sleep in the sun without being burned to a crisp, liked being able to eat more than one thing, and most of all, she like being _alive_.

Lowering his head so his nose barely brushed the bare skin of her neck, Dracula didn't answer right away, just nuzzled the side of Zara's neck that wasn't covered by her shirt, right where her neck joined her shoulder, making her freeze. Finally, he murmured, "Three bites by yours truly, though I do believe it's only two now."

Zara shivered, this time _defiantly_ not from fear, what he had said about already having bitten her not even registering in her brain as Dracula's lips brushed against her skin. Feeling her shiver, Dracula smirked against her neck, then, just to see how she'd react, raked his fangs along her jugular.

Zara shivered again, this time from fear, her knees seriously about to fold as all that went through her head was, _ohmygod, ohmygod OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA DIE!_

Suddenly, the count spun her around, one hand snaking around her waist, keeping her pressed tightly to his chest and snapping Zara out of her daze. Smirking down at her defiant and slightly confused face, he continued,

"Then, once you've drunken _my_ blood, the transformation will be complete."

"As if." Zara snarled up at him, making the count chuckle darkly and sending yet _another_ shiver down her back.

"Cold?" Dracula's smirk widened. He knew very well that he himself was the cause of her shivers. Zara glared up at him and snapped,

"No! Just let _go _of me!"But the count just raised one obsidian eyebrow.

"Whatever for my dear?" Zara gave yet another frustrated shout and tried to hit him once more, only to have her hands caught _again_.

Dracula raised both his eyebrows, looking like a parent scolding a naughty child. "My, my Zara! I expected more from you!" Zara's lips curled up into a sneer, her eyes narrowing as she sent the count the best Valerious glare he had ever seen.

"Too bad. This is what you're getting." She snarled up at him. "And stop with the eyebrows and the smirking! It's pissing me off!!!"

Dracula smirk only widened even more, a smug and mischievous look lighting in his eyes. He and Zara disappeared, only to reappear in the Valerious home, the sudden change making her head spin. "What are you doing?" She snapped as he stepped towards the painting.

"Is it so strange that I don't want to fly all the way back to my mountain? Open it."

"Why?" The count glared at her and Zara looked away, glaring at the wall and imagining his smug face on it, and then imagined what he would look like if she kicked him between his legs.

Dracula decided that he _really_ didn't want to know what Zara was thinking. If the dark smirk on her face was anything to go by, it probably included him and him in pain. A pale finger hooked under her chin, forcing her to look up at him.

"_Open it._" Zara felt as if she was falling into those deep blue eyes of his. It was a feeling similar to what she had felt when some kid at Alana's 12th birthday party had almost (accidentally) drowned her in her friend's pool.

A glazed look in her eyes, Zara mumbled the words that appeared in her head and disappeared as soon as they slipped out of her mouth. "In the name of God, open this door." Two seconds later, as the map turned to ice; she couldn't even have told you what she had just said as Dracula, with her in tow, swept through it to stand before his castle.

"Welcome home, my dear." The sting of snow on her face snapped Zara out of the count's spell and she began to take huge gasps of air as if she had just come up from under water.

"Don't...c-call me that." She panted, not able to shake the feeling of water in her mouth and hands on her head, holding her down.

Seeing Zara's panicked look as she desperately sucked in air, her chest heaving, Dracula frowned. _I didn't think the spell would affect her that much._ The count and Zara disappeared again, to reappear inside the castle, in front of a huge, black door.

"Well, my dear, as you yourself said that this horrid attitude you're giving me is all I'm getting, and since I'm not satisfied with said horrid attitude," The count pushed open the door. "We're going to play a little game."

"I'm too old to play games Count." Zara hissed up at her captor, trying to break free.

She failed miserably. Even one handed, Dracula was stronger than her.

"Well, I'm sure you'll find yourself eager to play this one." "Why?" Dracula smirked down at her again, and Zara clenched her hands. She _hated_ that smile! And everything about that stupid vampire!

_**But…if that was true…then why did you shiver when he kissed your neck? Well, our neck, I guess**_

…_who're you?_

_**Duh. Your vampire side**_

…

_Well, not exactly the welcome you where hoping for, eh? _

_And who're __**you?! **_

_Your werewolf side._

…_so you're saying now I have __**3**__ voices in my head?!_

_**It's really only 2**_

_Whatever…I thought this kinda thing only happened in clichéd stories…_

_**Well-! Wait…what does "clichéd" mean?**_

…

Zara shook herself out of her inner conversation in time to see that she was now being swept down a long flight of icy steps. She could also see that below them, stretching out so far she couldn't see its ends, was a giant, icy maze.

"Oh no." She paled, realization dawning on her. _He's not-_

Seeing the terrified look on her pale face, Dracula chuckled.

"Oh yes. Are you ready, my dear?" He swept her inside, and a wall of ice slid up from the ground, blocking all escapes.

Zara broke away and leaned against a wall, trying to get as far away from him as possible, her long bangs covering her frantic glances along the icy hallway for any route of escape.

Of course, since it was _Dracula_ watching her, she might as well have yelled, **"Is there anyway out I can see without you noticing?!"**

"There's only two ways out of here, my dear." Zara's head snapped around to face him, and the count got the feeling that she was glaring at him from under her curtain of hair.

"And they are?" He smirked.

"All will be revealed in due time." Frustrated, Zara blew the hair out of her face, revealing her teal eyes which were indeed glaring at Dracula.

"_Fine._" She seethed and stalked off in the other direction. To her surprise, Dracula made no move to stop her.

"That isn't the smartest idea, my dear." Zara stopped and turned to face him.

"Why?" He appeared before her, making her blink in surprise and take a half-step back.

"Because I haven't explained the rules of the game yet." Zara scowled at him, backing up to lean against the wall, only to jump forwards as something poked her. She whirled around to see icy-white roses growing out of the wall. _Weird…_

"Fine." She snapped. "Explain."

"Alright. Now, _if_ you can make it through and out of the maze before I catch you, I'll let you go _and_ give you a month to hide anywhere in the world you want. Not that'll do you much good, though." Zara rolled her eyes.

_Can we say, 'conceited'? _

'_Now now my dear, it isn't nice to call people names.' _Zara narrowed her eyes.

_One, I'm not your anything. Two, don't call me 'dear'. And three, I technically didn't __**call**__ you conceited. I merely thought it. _

"As riveting as our mental conversation is, I'm afraid it's time to finish my explanation." Zara rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically,

"Ooh and we wouldn't want to miss _that_, now would we?" Ignoring her sarcasm, Dracula continued,

"And if _I_ win," He paused, his eyes lighting up in an unholy shade of blue. "I get a bite." He looked up at a big clock on the wall –visible from all over the maze – and turned back to her. "_If_ you beat the top survival time, it'll be a _year's_ head start."

"And if I don't?" Zara was almost afraid to ask. Almost.

"I get _two _bites." Zara paled considerably, before miserably asking,

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Dracula chuckled gleefully.

"Not at all my dear. Not at all." Zara desperately searched for something, _anything_ that could give her an advantage, no matter _how_ small; chewing on her lower lip in frustration.

"How much of a head start do I get? And I _do_ get one, right?"

"Of course, my dear. And to answer the other half of your question, 30 seconds." Zara gasped.

"No wonder you always win!" Dracula feigned innocent, even going as far as to bat his eyes at her and place a hand on his chest in mock surprise.

"What _ever_ makes you say that, my dear?" Zara snorted; peeved at being called 'my dear', but knowing it would be a waist of breath to correct him.

"Because. Tricking someone into playing a twisted game with a _zero percent_ of survival disguised as _75 percent, _and offering a prize _no one_ can resist –and a _very_ good prize at that-"She crossed her arms over her chest. "_And_, giving someone false hope, and then crushing it by all but stomping it into the dust seems _just_ like the kind of twisted, sadistic thing you'd like." By the end of her little speech, Dracula had an amused expression on his face and gave his prisoner/guest a mock bow.

"Congratulations, I'm impressed; no one else figured it out that soon, if at all."

"And _another_ thing! This whole maze is made of icy hedges! I'm already shivering!"

"So?"

"_So_, since I'm giving off more heat than normal, it'll make it even _easier_ for you to find me!"

"I fail to see what you're getting at."

"It's unfair!"

"Ah. You're right, my love." The count leaned closer, backing Zara into one of the icy hedges, to her supreme discomfort. "But in _my_ book, "fair" is anything that helps _me_ win." He leaned back, leaving Zara –discomfort forgotten- gaping at him.

"Close your mouth love. You'll catch flies." Zara's jaw snapped shut and she glared at the vampire, before icily demanding, "I want a two minute head start."

"One."

"One and a half." He thought for a moment.

"Done." They shook on it.

Zara took a step into the maze, then turned back to face him.

"What _is_ the top survival time, anyways?"

"Two and a half minutes. You only have a minute left now, you know. 59, 58…" Zara was already out of sight.

Dracula closed his eyes, counting down in his head, listening to Zara's pulse get farther and farther away and allowed himself an evil smirk. _This is going to be fun._

"…3, 2, 1." His eyes snapped open and he gleefully cried out, "Ready or not Princess, here I come!"

**A/N: -sigh- Dracula's so hard to write!!! –whines and complains- Reposted: 7-28-07**


	7. The Maze: Part Two

**A/N: Oh god, I originally wrote this almost a YEAR ago!! I'm so slow with the updating and the writing, and yeah. Reposted: 7-31-07**

The Maze: part 2

Zara's breath formed little clouds before her as she ran through the maze, not caring which direction she took, as long as it was away from Dracula.

"Ready or not Princess, here I come!" Dracula's voice rang though the maze, causing his prey to momentarily freeze in fear.

_Remember the book! He can hear a person's heartbeat from up close, and the louder it is; the easier it is to hear it. Calm down. If I get far enough away, I'll be fine._ Once her heartbeat had returned to normal she turned on her heel and ducked into a nearby passageway just as the click of Dracula's fancy boots on the ice could be heard.

A few moments later, Dracula turned a corner and strolled into the clearing Zara had just exited. Raising his head, he sniffed the air, looking more like a werewolf than a vampire for a moment.

"You can't hide from me, love." A row or two away, Zara froze. "I can smell you."

_Eeeewwww._ He smiled at her mental sound of disgust and continued.

"And you smell like," He materialized behind Zara just as she turned around, so she ran straight into him. "Fear." With a yelp of that same emotion, Zara pushed him away and fled deeper into the labyrinth. And he let her.

With a smirk, he clasped his hands behind his back and continued to stroll along, the click of his boots echoing loudly though the maze as he calmly turned a corner. "Have fun, little princess, but remember," He materialized in front of Zara so she ran into him again, but this time catching her wrists in his hands. "To look where you're going." As she struggled, he smirked down at her. "Caught you."

Dracula looked up at the clock, his hands tightening around Zara's struggling wrists until she thought they would break. Three minutes had passed. "Hmm, looks like I only get one bite after all." He shifted into his demon form and picked Zara up by her shoulders, flying towards the edge of the maze. "Oh, and did I mention that I don't win until you're actually _out_ of the maze?"

"What?!" Zara screamed up at him. "You never told me that!" If a demon can shrug, then Dracula did so and grinned down at her.

"Oops. Oh well-" He never finished that sentence, because Zara took the opportunity to slam her hands –fingers laced together to form an (in Dracula's opinion) _very_ dangerous weapon of flesh and blood- into his foot _repeatedly_. Ouch.

Not surprisingly, he dropped the princess.

…From 20 feet in the air. Double ouch.

Zara landed on her back, all the air rushing out of her lungs. Gasping and wheezing, she rolled onto her stomach, pulled herself up and stumbled off just as Dracula landed in human form on the floor behind her, rubbing his foot.

o0O0o

After running for who know how long, Zara stopped to take a breather. She stumbled forwards a step in surprise when a thorn imbedded itself in her palm, cursed, and stepped on a stone a shade paler than the others. It sunk down a few inches, and there was a hissing noise, as if a million holes had just opened up in the walls.

"_Shit!_" Zara yelled, dropping face-first to the floor with her hands over her head, as wooden stakes flew over her. A _lot_ of stakes. "Oh…my…god." She gasped, pulling herself up and sending thanks to whomever was listening. "Wait a second." She pulled out a few of the stakes, grinning as she saw what they were made of, and that they were still sharp.

Zara tucked some under her belt, and held one in her hand. Maybe she couldn't _kill _Dracula, but she could slow him down. Hope rising within her…she ran into a dead end.

A few rows over, Dracula's sensitive ears picked up Zara's cursing. He jumped into the air, changing into demon form. A few moments later, human again, he landed in the icy corridor he'd heard the cursing from, only to find himself alone.

But Zara's path was made clear to him by the trail of bloody roses going up and over the hedge. Dracula grabbed one and snapped the stem, the hedge buckling slightly for a moment before straightening out again.

Absently, he twirled the rose between his fingers while he started at it; lost in thought. Then he brought it up to his face and confirmed it was Zara's blood with a sniff, then beginning to lick the blood off the flower's petal's and thorns, his tongue getting cut and healing instantly.

Red and black blood ran down his throat as he dropped the, now clean, alabaster rose to the icy floor, licking crimson blood off his fingers and shivering at the heavenly taste as he moved onto the next rose, licking it clean as well. _On its own, Zara's blood is some of best I've ever tasted. Now that it's a mix of lycan and vampire blood as well…_

With a hum of satisfaction, Dracula continued to move from rose to rose, taking a vertical step up the hedge when all the ones within his reach were clean. A grin broke out of his icy features as a delightful idea occurred to him. _Zara was right when she said that this was unfair. Everything is in __**my**__ favor. But, _Another evil smirk split his face. _This way is much more fun. _

o0O0o

On the other side of the hedge, Zara was busy ripping off the hem of her skirt and wrapping the makeshift bandages around her bleeding hands. Suddenly, the hedge buckled, then snapped back into place and a few moments later came a disgusting slurping sound and a hum of delight.

The young Valerious had a sudden and overwhelming desire to hurl.

_Ewww!!!! He's licking my blood off the roses! That is __**disgusting!! **_She looked up at the long trail of blood she had left behind and smiled grimly. _But…_ _it'll slow him down long enough for me to get out of this godforsaken place._

Zara silently pulled herself to her feet and took off running into the maze, her sandals padding softly on the ice.

o0O0o

In the space that Zara had been sitting only moments earlier, Dracula dropped down to land silently on the icy floor, licking any stray blood from his lips and fingers. _Delicious._ He decided, before changing into a demon and following Zara's moving heartbeat through the maze on silent wings.

In a few moments, he could see the small speck that was Zara Valerious, drawing ever closer to the exit. That is, until she fell –quite literally- straight into another trap. The stake pit.

o0O0o

Zara had been running as fast as she could when the floor had suddenly dropped out from underneath her and she had fallen with a scream of terror. A few minutes later, when she realized that she hadn't died yet, she pried open an eye to find that she was hanging from the edge by one hand.

She sent a quick thank you to whomever might be listening (Dracula excluded) and pulled herself up and out of the pit.

_Thank god._ She thought, and the vampire above her thanked the devil as Zara took off at a sprint down the path.

_The exit!_ She had turned the corner and saw the thing that meant the most to her right now, the wave of relief and excitement slamming into the hovering count like a fright train, and if he'd had a heart, he would feel a slight twinge of regret for what he was about to do. Then the moment had passed and he hid as the young Valerious turned to scan the skies of that icy hell to look for him, as she experienced the sudden feeling that I was being watched.

A yard from her goal, she turned again to look for Dracula. Seeing nothing and sighing in relief, she turned back around – right into the very man she was running from.

o0O0o

Dracula smirked in dark amusement as Zara's eyes grew huge, her pupils shrinking and her mouth opening and closing several times in an attempt to speak.

So, he filled the silence for her.

"Well my dear, since you are simply _speechless _in your happiness to see me, I'll fill break the awkward silence and congratulate you on lasting the longest in the labyrinth." A black-clad arm slithered around her waist, pulling her even closer to him. "But it's over now. I win." It was those last two words that brought Zara to her senses and she grabbed one of the stakes from her belt and tried to stake him.

Note, if you will, the word _tried_.

Vladislaus looked from the stake in the tan hand –stopped in mid-air by his own hand around her wrist- to its owner.

"Why Zara, I'm surprised at y-" He never got to finish his sentence, because at that moment Zara pulled the second stake out from behind her back and staked him right through the heart.

He let go of her and stumbled back a step or two, eyes as wide as Zara's had been a few moments ago. She shoved him aside and ran for the exit.

Just as her fingertips had passed through the arch, she was grabbed from behind by the shoulder and slammed brutally into the side of the arch that was still in the maze and pinned there by her throat.

With a bored, more than slightly pissed-off look on his face, Dracula pulled the stake from his chest, staring at it with a contemplative look on his face before singled handedly snapping it in two and letting the pieces fall to the floor.

"Wha-how-?" Zara gasped around the crushing hand on her throat, eyes huge in her pale face. Dracula laughed at her confusion, before removing his hand from her throat, keeping his arm around her waist to pin her to him.

"I hate you." Zara hissed up at the vampire while struggling to get free. The latter merely grinned, showing off his sharp teeth.

"Sticks and stones, love. Sticks and stones." (Last chapter, someone informed me that Dracula sounded like Jack Sparrow and yes, looking back, he does. And now, he's using one of Sparrow's lines from the first movie. So I don't own it.) Dracula laughed as he whisked her out of the maze and up the steps to the large black door they had entered through what felt like a lifetime ago, but in reality was less then 10 minutes. But it was still past midnight.

Suddenly Dracula spun Zara so she was pressed up against the wall and facing him and, before she could react, sunk his fangs into her neck for the second time in as many weeks.

Zara gave a shout of pain, her hands hitting the count on the neck, head and shoulders, until they were trapped against the wall as well. As her knees trembled until she thought she would collapse, all Zara could do was grit her teeth and wait it out.

And then it was over.

Vlad kissed the wound on her neck, healing it, before releasing her hands and leaning back just enough so that he could look into her face and smirk.

"Now, that wasn't _that_ bad, now was it?" Zara glared at him through the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, her right hand coming up to cup around the bitten area of her neck.

"Go to _Hell_." She spat at him as Dracula began to escort her up the steps again.

"Already been there, my dear. It's actually a very boring place." The look the woman in his arms was giving him at this moment _probably_ could've peeled paint, but unfortunately, Dracula was ignoring her.

"Your room, my love." Dracula swept his arm out to show Zara into her room.

"Stop calling me that." She bit back, dying a little inside when she saw the prison-like room, her eyes sliding right over her stuff (that had somehow appeared there) and her throat tightening with barely held back tears of sadness, regret, hate and despair.

Sensing that she wanted to be left alone, Dracula bid her goodnight and disappeared, doubtlessly to go feed on some poor, unsuspecting villager.

Sighing, Zara crossed over to the window, falling into the seat beside it and leaning her hot forehead against the cool glass, looking out at the falling snow. She shivered from the cold, but did nothing. _I __hate__ the cold! And everything else about this hell-hole. _A single, crystalline tear rolled down her cheek as she looked out on the place that had become her prison, on the living hell her life had become in just one short week.

o0O0o

A few hours later, just as the sun began to rise, Dracula entered Zara's room the old fashioned way (a.k.a, walking through the door) just to make sure she hadn't attempted to escape while he was gone.

He found her lying curled up in the window seat, her head resting against a pillow, looking like an angel in one of the rare sun-beams to grace Castle Dracula. But, the picture was ruined by the tear-streaks down her cheeks and the other, unmistakable signs that she had been crying.

While he looked at her, so serene and forlorn in the light of the rising sun, the vampire's eyes softened to an ocean-blue that matched Zara's. But then the picture was ruined by the smirk on his face at a secret only he would ever know.

Dracula stood there until the sunlight had crept all the way up to his toes, before sweeping out of the room, leaving behind a single piece of parchment on the empty bed.

**A/N: I know…it's late. –cries- and I just realized something, in the second chapter, it says that they're on **_**spring**_** break…but also that it's **_**October**_**. So, basically, they just have a two week break from school. Boy, rereading this…it's depressing how bad it was. REVIEW! Or Dracula will eat your soul!!!!**

**Dracula: No I won't. **

**Me: Why?**

**Dracula: They probably taste bad. **

**Me: THAT'S MEAN!! IF ALL YOU'RE GOING TO DO IS INSULT MY READERS, THEN GO AWAY!! **

**Dracula: fine. –walks off- **

**Me: …ok…that was strange. –sighs- just hit that little button in the corner of your screen. You know you want to. **


	8. Of Notes and Letters

**A/N: I GOT TO RIDE A CAMEL LAST WEEK!!! Ok, 2 weeks ago.**

**Everyone: …**

**Me: My brother wanted to go to the zoo, so I came along (there was nothing else to do, and I needed a break from writing. This is a **_**long**_** chapter) and they had this thing where you got to ride a camel. It was awesome. But smelly. VEERRRYYY smelly. **

**And before that, I spent the night at my friend's house, but her dog had just gotten spayed two days before, so it was our job to look after her. But it was cool. Except her little brother kept on trying to hit me with the balls that shoot from those little plastic things that throw base/"soft" (they are NOT soft! When I was little, I was on a softball team, and another girl accidentally hit me in the face with one. It broke my nose) balls at you to hit with a bat. **

**Reposted: 7-31-07**

Of Notes and Letters

With a yawn, Zara woke up, basking in the sun like a content cat. She just sat like that until the sun slid behind a cloud and all the warmth it had left behind disappeared. Stretching, she swung her stiff legs off the window seat and wobbled towards the bathroom to brush her teeth.

On her way out into the castle, she spotted something lying on her unused bed.

"Hm? Wassat?" She sleepily stumbled over to it and flopped down on the bed to read it. It read:

_Dearest, _"Oh lord. Only one word and I know I'm not gonna like this." Zara groaned.

_While I sleep, feel free to wander the castle as you wish. The Dwergi have been warned not to trouble you. If they do…well, leave that to me. _

_Tonight we leave for Budapest so look through the wardrobe next to your bed for something to wear to the ball on Sunday. I suggest that sleeveless ocean-blue one. It matches your eyes._

_-Count Vladislaus Dragulia_

Zara sneered down at the note, before crumpling it into a ball that was chucked across the room, where it hit the wall, bounced down to the floor and burst into flames in the shape of a bat, then a heart, and then what looked like a wolf with wings, before catching the drapes on fire.

"Ahh! Fire!!" She vaulted over the bed and stamped on the burning curtains for a minute or two, acquiring a streak of soot or five on her face and legs, before the fire went out. "YOU THINK YOU'RE FUNNY, COUNT, BUT YOU'RE NOT!!!" She screamed straight up, to where she knew Dracula's room was.

"Well, _I _thought it was amusing." His voice whispered in her ear, but when she turned around, no one was there.

"THAT WASN'T FUNNY EITHER!!" Dracula heard her scream from below him, and chuckled to himself before returning to his crypt for the day.

After sulking around her room for sometime, the previous day's happenings in the maze returned to her, and Zara gave a shudder. She felt so…so…_unclean_. So, after spending a few minutes looking for the essentials, she locked herself in the bathroom.

Inside was the biggest, most beautiful bathtub she'd _ever_ seen. It was pitch black, set into the dark navy blue floor and had silver faucets. Grinning widely, Zara set up her portable radio within reach, set down her shampoo, conditioner and whatnot and filled the tub with hot water.

With a sigh of relief, she slipped into the water, the steaming liquid coming up to her chin. She dunked her head under the water, flipping it when she came up, so the wall behind her was soaked and possibly ruined. She smirked. _Take that, Dracula…_

With a dripping hand, she reached out and flicked on the radio and smiled as a song came on, humming along as she ruefully reflected how well this song reflected her completely suckish life. But, she'd always been a shower singer (or bathtub singer in this case) and after the first chorus, couldn't resist softly singing along. (She had vowed to never sing loudly in a situation like this ever again, after she'd once been caught belting out the lyrics to some completely dorky song by all of her friends, who had stopped by to take her shopping, and they had _never _let her live it down.)

Poison** by Alice Cooper**

**Your cruel device**

**your blood, like ice**

**One look, could kill**

**My pain, your thrill...**

**I wanna love you but I better not touch**

**I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop**

**I wanna kiss you but I want it too much**

**I wanna taste you but your lips are venomous poison**

**You're poison, running through my veins**

**You're poison**

**I don't wanna break these chains**

**Your mouth, so hot**

**Your web, I'm caught**

**Your skin, so wet**

**Black lace, on sweat...**

In a different part of the castle, Dracula awoke to a female voice that he'd never piercing through the usual dead silence **(pardon the pun)** of his castle and followed it to the closed door of Zara's bathroom.

Leaning against the outer door frame, he closed his eyes and listened to the static voice of the radio, barely able to separate the voice that owned the heartbeat from the one that sang from the electric box.

**I hear you calling and its needles and pins**

**I wanna hurt you just to hear you screaming my name**

**Don't wanna touch you but you're under my skin**

**I wanna kiss you but your lips are venomous poison**

**You're poison, running through my veins**

**You're Poison**

**I don't wanna break these chains**

**Running deep inside my veins**

**Poison burning deep inside my veins**

**One look, could kill**

**My pain, your thrill...**

**I wanna love you but I better not touch**

**I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop**

**I wanna kiss you but I want it too much**

**I wanna taste you but your lips are venomous poison**

**You're poison, running through my veins**

**You're Poison**

**I don't wanna break these chains**

**Poison**

**I wanna love you but I better not touch**

**I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop**

**I wanna kiss you but I want it too much**

**I wanna taste you but your lips are venomous poison**

**You're poison, running through my veins**

**You're Poison**

**I don't wanna break these chains**

**Poison**

Zara stopped singing as a different song came on. _God I hope __**he**__ didn't hear that- _Then, she heard a dark chuckle she knew all too well come from outside the door. She shrieked, jumping so badly that the radio clattered onto the floor along with her shampoo.

"G-go away!" She yelled, face burning at the knowledge that Dracula had been listening to her. When the chuckling continued, she asked quietly, "H-how long were you listening?" She was so humiliated, she wanted to disappear.

"Long enough."

Zara buried her face in her hands, that same face bright red as Dracula asked,

"I think I can be sure that that song was about me, was it not?" Zara didn't answer; she was too busy smacking her head with her fist, then she softly and hesitantly asked,

"W-were y-you listening any…any of the other times t-too?" Dracula was silent. Should he deny it and risk her finding out? Or admit to listening and probably have something thrown at his head? Wow. That was a _real_ toss up. **(If you didn't get the sarcasm…then you're stupid.) **

"Before? What are you talking about?" Zara sighed, leaning back and closing her eyes.

Then, just as Dracula thought he had gotten away with the lie, Zara's still-soft voice pierced through the tense silence.

"Liar." He winced, as, on cue; a large, expensive family heirloom came crashing through the door right next to him.

He leaned over, so he was looking through the hole the thing-that was-one-a-vase had made in the door and raised an eyebrow at Zara, who was glaring at him from the safety of the bathtub.

"_Really _my dear. Is your first reaction to everything violence-?" He just barely managed to doge the _other_ large, expensive family heirloom located conveniently (and suspiciously) within easy grabbing distance of the tub.

"Get out. _Now._" Zara hissed; murder in her eyes. Dracula left. Fast.

o0O0o

_I hate him! I hate him! I hate him __**so**__ much! Aughh! It shouldn't be __**possible**__ for someone to be that infuriating! _Zara, her hair still wet, stalked down the halls of Castle Dracula, spontaneously breaking things in her annoyance.

A sudden tug on her sleeve caused her to stiffen, her anger rising. "Go AWAY, you blood sucking-" She stared dumbly down at the trembling Dwergi. "Oh. Sorry-" The small creature shoved something at her and ran away as fast as it could; only succeeding in tripping over its own feet.

Though she personally thought Dwergi were nasty-looking little things, Zara felt sorry for the plainly terrified one in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt you-" She knelt by it, helping it up, only to have the thing squeak and pull out of her grasp, fleeing down the hallway. With a sigh of "Oi", Zara got up and dusted herself off before looking at what the Dwergi had handed her.

"A letter?"

o0O0o

"Zaaaa-raaaaa." A sing-song voice woke her from her nap. "Wake uuuuup, Zara…We have to goooo…" Dracula was bending over the sleeping girl. The sun had just slipped below the horizon, so they had to leave now if they were going to make it to Budapest by sunrise. The only problem was that Zara was refusing to get up. '_I know you're awake.'_ Dracula thought at her, but the girl remained infuriatingly still.

After scowling darkly for a few moments, a smirk curled across Dracula's face, and he leaned over Zara again, so his mouth was right by her ear, and whispered, "If you don't get up right this instant, I'll _bite_ you." And both knew that, given the chance, he would.

Zara's eyes snapped open, staring into the Count's, which were less than an inch away. "What the-!?!" In her attempt to get away before he made good on his threat, Zara fell (rather ungracefully, I must say) off of the bed and onto the floor, where she lay, panting. "Don't DO that!" She screeched, hand over her heart. "You almost gave me a heart attack!" Well, she _had_ been already awake, but the threat of being bitten again, combined with opening her eyes to see the vampire _right there,_ had shocked her enough so that she fell to where she was now.

"Well, you wouldn't wake up _and_ you haven't picked out a dress yet." Vlad snapped, his patience at an end.

"One, I'm _not_ wearing a dress." Zara snapped right back. "And _two_," She crossed her arms, a stubborn expression on her face as she turned around so her back faced him. "I'm not going." He scowled; an expression that would make any man down in the village wet himself.

Too bad it didn't work on her.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"_Yes_, you are."

"Uh _no_, I'm _not_."

"YES, you are!"

"_NO, I'M NOT!"_

"_YES! YOU! ARE!" _Dracula roared, his eyes a burning shade of blue that froze Zara to the spot, at the same time she felt a chilling presence in her mind.

'_Say you're going'_ The voice whispered, but it was a bit too much like Dracula's, so that instead of listening to it as she had obviously been intended to, Zara defiantly (and rather difficulty) turned her head, looked him straight in the eye (which, in retrospect, was _not_ the smartest of ideas) and quite simply said:

"No."

The next thing she knew, Zara was on her knees, screaming in pain. Wave after wave of mind-ripping pain washed through her, and all she could do was scream and cry. _D-d-damn it-t. _Was the only thought she managed to string together through the pain.

'_Say you're going and the pain stops.'_ The voice hissed maliciously.

"I-I'm-" The pain lessened, only to double as she continued, "-n-n-not going!" Her fingernails dug into the skin around her ears, drawing blood in a futile attempt to block out the pain as it doubled again.

Zara was barely aware that she was crying, and that the scratches on the side of her head were bleeding enough so that they too were running down her face like crimson tears.

'_Say you're going.' _The voice whispered again, and this time, Zara hurt enough to contemplate agreeing…that is, until it continued on to say, _'I told you so, Zara. No one, even someone as…unique as you can resist me.'_

"YOU A-ARE S-SO F-F-FULL OF IT!!" As Dracula took a few moments to realize he had just been insulted, the pain disappeared and Zara fell over onto her back and just lay there, panting and letting her head heal. But, just as the last traces of pain had disappeared, the voice returned with a vengeance.

The moment he dug into her mind again, Zara's eyes locked with his, and the shock, pain, hurt and hatred made Dracula's hold on her mind waver for a moment, until he recognized the last emotion: fear. That, along with the hate, cut him more deeply then he let on to the crying girl, but since their minds were still connected, Zara could feel his hurt, along with every other unshed tear and scream that he himself had experienced in his 450+ years of life, and truly felt for him.

That is, until the pain started up again.

After what seemed like hours, but was really only mere minutes, of anguish and thrashing around on the floor, Zara crumbled and screamed through her tears, "Al-Alright!! I'm g-going! I-I'm going!" The pain immediately stopped, and she fell face-first into the carpet, where she lay, unable to move or stop crying.

A pair of pale hands picked up the sobbing girl from where she lay, bringing her to rest against a well-muscled, black-clothed chest, one hesitantly hugging her, and the other absent-mindedly running through her sweat-soaked hair. Zara sighed happily through her fast-ending tears, completely oblivious to the fact that the chest she was snuggling into was Dracula's. Resting his cheek on the top of her head, his hands slipping down to hug her around her waist, Dracula closed his eyes, began to rock back and forth with her and whispered,

"Now, wasn't that easy?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Why did you say you weren't going?"

"Hmm?"

"You heard me." Zara yawned before replying,

"Cuz my friend Alana sent me a letter today sayin' that she's comin' to visit me at Castle Frankenstein." Zara yawned again into the Count's chest, still half asleep, and frowning when her pillow stiffened in rage.

"_What?_" Said pillow hissed at the girl in his arms, who cracked an eye and got an eyeful of black and blinked.

"You heard me…" She trailed off as she lifted her head, and fully comprehended not only _where_ she was, but _who_ was holding her. "…Why the hell are you hugging me? Let go!!" Zara tried to pull out of his arms, but Dracula only held her tighter against his chest. "If you don't let go- I-I'll bite you!!" Zara yelled, but Dracula only chuckled, the evil sound causing the little hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end in fear.

"By all means, dearest, please do." Zara glared up at him, though it _was_ pretty hard to think clearly _or_ concentrate on being pissed while being held against the chest of the handsomest, smexiest man alive…or undead man…undead, I guess.

"Well, since your friend is coming, we must greet her at the appointed place. Unfortunately, I'm afraid she must accompany us to the ball." Zara rolled her eyes and dryly commented,

"Because it's _every_ girl's dream to accompany the lord of the undead to his all-blood-suckers ball." Dracula chuckled after a moment or two, sweeping towards the wide window and opening it. "But, knowing Ala, she'll be the center of every male's attention; undead or not." She muttered under her breath, unconsciously tightened her hold on Dracula's torso as she sought refuge from the cold. Dracula smirked down at the top of her head and tightened his hold around her, but said nothing.

"Ooh, jealous?" Ok, so maybe I lied about that he's-not-gonna-say-anything… thing.

"NO!" Zara replied hotly and a little too quickly.

"Of course you're not." His voice was soothing, but held more than a touch of smug amusement. Then, without warning, he stepped off of the balcony, his hold on the Valerious tightening as they plunged towards the far below ground.

Said Valerious shrieked and buried her head in his chest, but not before hissing, "If you get us killed, I will never speak to you again."

"But, dearest, I'm already dead."

"…so what?" Dracula chuckled, snapping open his newly-formed wings _just _before they hit the ground, soaring up over the top of his castle, and over the mountains towards the village.

Zara glared at him again, broke his left eardrum with her screams of protest against what he had just done, and then took a nap, her last words to him being, "If you drop me, I'll come back as a ghost and make your life hell." And with that loving farewell, she went to sleep…in his arms. NOT that she liked it…ok, maybe a _little_…ok, ok, a LOT. _Screw Dracula and his complete and utter sexiness. _She decided as she went to sleep.

o0O0o

Zara woke up when a cold hand cupped her cheek and tilted her head up, a cold breeze wafting across her lips. Her dark teal eyes snapped open and she glared at the now-human Dracula, whose face was _far_ too close for comfort.

"Don't even think about it." She hissed, pulling out of his grip and leaping away, only afterwards remembering that when she had gone to sleep, they were still flying, and sent up a prayer that they were on the ground.

They were.

Of course, Dracula had known what she was thinking, and is face held a very amused grin. Zara sent him a glare that said, 'say something and _die_.'

"When will your friend get here?" Dracula asked, completely ignoring the glare.

"In two days." Zara snapped, and then turned on her heel, stalking off into the castle, and in the direction of her rooms.

Ok, so maybe just down the nearest hallway.

"DAMMIT!!" She screamed, kicking the wall of yet _another_ dead end. It was now about three o' clock in the morning now, and she had been wandering around since they had gotten there three hours ago.

"You know, you _could_ ask for my help." Zara didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. After all, he _had_ been following her around for all three of those hours.

"Uh, can we say 'hell no'?"

"Hell no." She turned to glare at him.

"Smart-ass."

"I'm so hurt." With a shout of frustration, Zara turned around and stalked down a hallway on her left, only to have Dracula block her way.

"Move." She ordered him, a stubborn look on her face.

"No. we need to talk." Zara stared at him for a moment.

"Fine. _But_, after, you need to take me to my room." He smirked.

"So, you're basically asking me for help." Zara scowled.

"Don't let your head swell up, _Uncle. _It's big enough as is." He scowled back.

"And maybe I'll just leave you here to wander the castle, searching for your room until you die."

"For some reason, I _really_ don't think you'd do that."

"Why?"

"…because. Now talk. I'm tired and I want to go to sleep." He sighed, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Fine." And the next moment, they were in some kind of study.

"Whoa." Again, the sudden change of surroundings made her head spin and she staggered away from him while trying to get the room to stop spinning.

Dracula seated himself in a blood-red chair, and Zara fell right on down onto the nearest couch and promptly closed her eyes for a nap.

"Don't fall asleep on my couch."

"Mmm. Why?" Zara mumbled, already half asleep.

"Those couches weren't originally red." Her eyes snapped open.

"What exactly are you trying to imply here?"

"That the past fools who fell asleep on my couch while I was talking to them…helped color it." She twitched. "They were originally white." He added. Zara screamed and fell off of the couch, landing on the floor, where she then screamed at her host,

"THAT'S DISGUSTING!!"

He raised an eyebrow, a small smirk on his face.

"…You didn't actually _believe_ me, did you? Perhaps a barbaric lycan or lowly _human _would kill a guest, but not me." Zara scowled. She didn't _like_ that she was a werewolf now, but she still wouldn't stand for any insults against her and her kind(s). "Don't scowl like that. Your face will stick." Zara grumbled a curse and kicked him in the shin, before hauling herself up onto a table, where she absent-mindedly began to swing her legs.

"Besides," Dracula continued, "I wouldn't waste a single drop of precious blood like _that_. If I wanted to kill someone, it would not be by such barbaric means as slitting a throat, or stabbing the heart-"

"Can we _please_ move onto whatever you wanted to talk about?" Zara interrupted, a bit green. "Cuz this topic's making me sick." He raised another eyebrow.

"A lycan/vampire with no stomach for blood?" He shook his head. "That will not do at all, Zara. We'll need to fix that-"

"CAN WE _PLEASE_ MOVE ON!?!"

"Very well." He crossed his legs and made a small bridge with his fingers, staring over them with obsidian eyes into Zara's clear jade ones, a bit confused at the sudden change of subject. "You friend…Alana, was it?" Zara nodded and he continued. "She will arrive in two days. That leaves us with three days before the ball. It is vital that she not find out about me-" He stopped; Zara was mimicking him with her hand, making a face as she mouthed along with him. When he stopped, she looked up, grinned fakely and hid her hands behind her back.

"What?" He rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't see that." She blinked.

"See what?"

"You know what."

"No I don't." He glared at her and she stared at him, a confused tilt to her head, and a fake look of concerned innocence painted on her face. "…you're not imagining things, are you?" His eye twitched.

"What?"

"…Never mind. You were saying?" The vampiric lord sighed and continued, not noticing how his guest began to imitate him again.

"Anyways, your friend will have a day here, and then we must depart for Budapest, where we will have only two days to prepare." This time, Zara saw when he would stop talking, and stopped mimicking him with her hand just as he opened his eyes.

"Fine. Whatever. Can I _please_ go to sleep now?" Before she even finished her question, Dracula had grabbed her shoulder again, and they had appeared in her room…which was fully furnished with stuff Zara could have sworn she saw in Castle Dracula just hours before. "Weird." She decided, and then went to sleep, waving absentmindedly at Dracula, who disappeared with a bow.

That night, she dreamed.

**Ok, to apologize for my lateness, I'm giving you two chapters in one! Yays!**


	9. Nightmares

**Reposted: 7-31-07**

**Nightmares**

_**Zara's Dream/POV **_

_I'm sitting here…but where __**is**__ here? Well, it's foggy…and…well, that about sums it up. Suddenly, I feel a hand on my back, pushing me forwards, out of the mist and, with one final shove "asshole", onto the ground in front of a large group of people. _

"_Hello, Zara." One of them, a good-looking man of about 28 says -his accent is quite similar to Dracula's, I can't help but notice- as he offers me a helping hand up. Warily, I take it, yanking my hand out of his grip as soon as I'm on my feet. _

"_Who-" "You are wondering who we are, correct?" I turn to see a lady, about 3 or 4 years younger than the man, staring at me. 'She looks just like that betrayer girl…' "Aisha?" She shook her head, a rueful smile on her face. _

"_Unfortunately not. I am your cousin Anna." _

"_Anna?" _

"_Yes. Anna Valerious." I can feel my eyes go wide and my mouth drop open in shock. I probably look like an idiot right now, but I don't care. _

_After all, I'm standing here, face to face, with the woman who has a whole freakin' SECTION of that book! That's like, almost as much as Dracula has! Anna smiles kindly at me and holds out a hand towards me. "Come on, Zara! Come and meet the rest of the family. I have a feeling you'll want to see a few people." _

_She leads me through the crowd, pointing out brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and other relatives, until we finally come to a stop. A circle had been cleared by the ghosts, and in its center were three figures I knew quite well. My eyes widen, and my mouth drops into an 'O' of surprise, my hands fly to cover my gaping mouth and I take a step back as the four turn around. _

_It was my family. _

_- - -_

_For a moment, Zara simply stared at them in shock. _

_There was her older brother, Alan, whom Zara had been told died in a car accident when she was 10. Even from where she stood, Zara could see the puncture marks in his neck. 'Dracula.' She thought, spitting out the name in her mind like a curse. _

_There was her mom and dad, both sporting their own fatal wounds._

"_MOM! DAD! ALAN!" She shrieked happily, racing towards them, arms open. They held out their arms to her, smiles on their faces. But, just as Zara neared them, everything went black. _

"_NO!!" _

_- - -_

"_Huh?" She slowly opened her eyes to find herself in an alleyway, with no one else around. "Wh-wha-? Where-?" _

"_SHH!" A small girl-ghost hissed, grabbing Zara's hand and led her towards the end of the alley. "We're not supposed ta see!" The two cautiously peered around the corner, and Zara had to cover her mouth to smother the gasp._

_The entire family was lying to their backs, each one whimpering in pain and holding their heads. The only ones standing were Anna, Her mom and dad, Alan, and the young man from before. 'Velkan.' Zara finally decided. _

_They were all staring up into the sky, at a large cloud of darkness in the shape of a man's head. The only part of his face was a familiar pair of glowing blue eyes. The thing spoke, and as it did, Zara very faintly felt a cool breath of air ghost across her forehead._

"_You__** will**__ bow." Hissed the voice in an accent similar to Anna's. "Do as I have commanded you or suffer the consequences."_

"_Well, what more __**can**__ you do to us?" Alan screamed. "You've already killed us and stolen Za-" He fell back as if slapped, and the voice thundered, _

"_Do not speak her name! And as to what more I can do to you…" The eyes narrowed, and Alan's ghost screamed and thrashed in pain for a few moments before exploding into dust. Those still standing screamed out in panic, only to fall quiet as the voice continued,_

"_That fool's behavior has led me to see something." It laughed cruelly. "I __**don't**__ need your consent to make you do my bidding." Pale hands emerged from the darkness, strings sprouting form each fingertip to connect to the heads, arms and legs of her family. _

_They cried out in panic as the figure made them dance, jerking the strings and laughing cruelly. _

_As the darkness swallowed Zara once more, she heard the voice purr, "Now let's try that dream again, shall we?"_

_- - -_

_Zara opened her eyes once again to find herself in the center of a large circle, ringed by her family on all sides. "Huh? What's wrong, you guys?" Anna steps forwards, her movement halting, as if she was fighting for control of her body. Remembering what she had seen before, Zara frowned. "Are you-" she was about to say "alright?" But found herself flying back, her cheek numb from the force of Anna's slap._

_A hand went to her cheek as she stared at her cousin. "Wh-what was that!?!" Zara screamed, finally finding her voice. _

"_She does the master's biding." The little girl from before said mournfully. 'She's the only one not affected by the strings.' Zara realized, and crawled over to the little girl and seized her shoulders. _

"_What's going on? Who's controlling them?" The little girl looked at her with fearful eyes. _

"_The Master." She whispered, before millions of little strings fell from the sky, wrapping around the little ghost and pulling her up, tightening around her until she screamed and fell to the ground as dust just as Alan had._

_As Zara screamed, her mother came up and grabbed her chin, bruising her daughter's jaw as tears coursed down her face and she forcefully pulled her up so that their eyes were level. _

"_You've betrayed us, Zara." She spat out, eyes narrowed in hate through the tears. "You were supposed to save us all from damnation, but instead, you got yourself __**bitten**__." She threw Zara across the circle, into the arms of Velkan, who whirled her around, his fingernails biting into the skin that covered her arms. _

"_And not just by a werewolf," He hissed. "But by a __**vampire**__ as well." He pushed her into the cleared space, and the whole family advance on her, saying as one,_

"_We put all our hopes with you, and you've damned us all! You were supposed to __**deliver **__us from Hell, but instead have locked us in and thrown away the key. Not only have you made no attempt to __**kill**__ Dracula when you __**live**__ in his home, but you've __**fallen**__ for him as well." Tears began to fall from Zara's eyes._

"_NO! NO! I __**don't**__ love him!" She screamed, her voice choked with tears both shed and unshed. Her family's accusations had begun to crack the lie she had been passing off as her life since her parents died. Now her real (or what she thought was real) feelings welled up, pushing through the cracks their harsh words had made. "I hate him for taking you all from me! And if that's not enough, now I've dragged Ala into this as well!" She drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them as the tears began to flow thick and fast down her face and she sobbed, the wall she had built crashing down as she cried into her knees, and she screamed, _

"_WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!?!" She raised her face from her knees and screamed and sobbed at the faceless ghosts. "I DIDN'T __**ASK**__ FOR THIS!! I DON'T __**WANT**__ THIS!! I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE! I WANT TO BE NORMAL! NOT A FREAK AMONG FREAKS! NOT A MONSTER, A-A FREAK WHO'S HALFWAY IN LOVE WITH THE MAN THAT KILLED HER FAMILY!! I-I d-do-don't w-w-want t-to." She whispered through her tears._

- - -

Dracula stared down at the girl, his hands on either side of her face allowing him to see into her dreams. But he didn't have to invade her head to see the tears flowing down her face as she sobbed, her hands reflexively grabbing for the closest thing –in this case, his loose, black jacket- and burying her face there and sobbing.

A frown marred his face, his eyebrows furrowed in concern and question.

"I didn't think this would affect you this much." He whispered softly into her ear, kissing her forehead and therefore withdrawing his presence from her mind. He then vanished, just as she woke up and the first of the sun's rays fell through her windows.

Zara lurched upright, covered in cold sweat, her eyes blurry from her tears. A dull ache in her jaw pulled her into the bathroom, where she saw the beginnings of a bruise from where the dream-Anna had hit her. Zara frowned. _How can a dream result in physical injury? I know that if you have a dream where you're falling, and you hit the ground, you die…but this?_

Just thinking of her dream caused a shiver of pure terror to go up Zara's spine, and stark panic drove all from her mind but this:

_I need to get out of here!_

**TBC…**

**YES! I AM BACK, A WEEK'S WORTH OF BEACH SUN TANNER, AND 4 DAYS OF SCHOOL DEPRESSED-ER! Bleh. Here's a bit of first day back dialogue:**

"**Ah…the first day of school…I think I'll commit suicide with this spork, now." –Me, at lunch. after our English teacher gave us a LOT of hw, and TWO HUGE text books to carry from home 2 school EVERY DAY.**

"…**is that even possible?" –Arnold, my friend's brother. **

**-dead silence.-**

"_**Mister**_** Kim…do you question the power of the Spork?" -Sam**

"**Well, yeah." –A**

"**The only people who question the power of the all-mighty Spork either have a death wish…" –Me**

"**Or are just plain stupid." –Sam.**

"**And that would be Arnold," –Lizzie, A's sister.**

**I have psycho friends… **

**UPDATE: oh god I wrote this almost a year ago…**


	10. Run Away

**A/N: ****….drum roll please…TODAY's MY B-DAY!! (Sept. 3****rd****) It's my -teenth b-day! Yayness!**

**Run Away**

_**Recap**_

Just thinking of her dream caused a shiver of pure terror to go up Zara's spine, and stark panic drove all from her mind but this:

_I need to get out of here!_

_**End Recap**_

In a blind panic, Zara threw open her closet and grabbed a black cloak, fastening it around her neck before striding over to the window. She fastened her fingers around the edge, but couldn't open the stupid thing.

"Craaappp!" She closed her eyes and tried harder. Suddenly, she felt a burst of strength, accompanied by a stab of pain in her bitten arm.

The window suddenly ripped off at the hinges, and Zara was left staring at it. "Whoa." Then, her muscles began to tense up, and she bit her lip enough to make it bleed to stop the growl that ripped through her throat, along with a scream from the pain that accompanied it. She let the huge window pane drop to the floor and bent over, bracing herself on the open arch as she caught her breath.

_It's only a few days until my first full moon._ She realized, remembering how VanHelsing had gone through the same thing after he had been bitten. _How's it been a month already?_ When she had caught her breath, she pulled up the hood and leapt out the window.

But she had misjudged the ground beneath it and lost her footing, sliding halfway down the huge hill, cursing all the way. "WHOOOOAAAAA!!" She came to a sudden stop, thanks to a tree. "Stupid ground." She mumbled as she pulled herself up, only to start running down towards the fast-moving river below.

When she reached it, she was faced with a dilemma. The river was too wide for her to jump across, and too fast for her to wade through.

"What to do, what to do." She mumbled to herself as she paced. "Ah HA! Got it!" She walked over to the tallest tree she could find and, calling on that strange strength again, succeeded in pushing it over after a few minutes of straining. It fell with a crash, reaching all the way across the river.

"YES!" Zara punched the air in victory and then vaulted up onto the fallen log and steadied herself, taking a few deep breaths. _It's just like the balance beam at home._ She repeated to herself over and over as she made her way across as fast as she dared.

Suddenly, she stepped on a part of the tree that was apparently rotten.

A loud crack echoed through the air. "Uh oh." Zara began to sprint for the other side. _I'm too far! _She ran faster as the middle of the log began to sag down towards the water. _I won't make it-!!_ The middle touched the water and the current whipped the log around in a crazy circle, ripped off of the bank by the current. As it swung back towards the village bank, Zara's hold on it slipped, and she went flying off, onto the bank and into, yep, you guessed it. Yet another tree.

"Owwww…" She moaned, rubbing her sore head. She pushed herself up, in time to see her "bridge" go spinning crazily down the river, before being dashed to pieces against the actual _stone _bridge across the river that she hadn't noticed. "Of course." She grumbled as she pulled herself up and smoothed her clothes before running towards the village.

Unnoticed, Zara slipped in through an alleyway and stopped to evaluate her options.

That is, where evaluating her options meant thinking: 'I DIDN'T PLAN AHEAD THIS FAR!! WHAT DO I DO NOW?' and freaking out, pacing in the small back alley.

_Ok Zara. Calm down. Prioritize. What needs to be done, and in what order?_

_Ok…Number one: I have to get out of here and warn Ala._

_Doable. Let's work on that first. _

_Step One: Get a horse. _

"Alright." Zara pulled up her hood up and calmly walked out of the alley as if she had had every right to be in there. After all, Rule Numero Uno of Sneaking Around was: Don't look guilty.

Suddenly, she began to get a _very _bad feeling. But she wasn't the only one. Horses began to whinny and rear and the people gave the castle on the hill increasingly worried looks. _Oh no. badbadbadBAD!!! _Zara tried not to scream as she turned and started to run in the opposite direction, only to run straight into someone, falling back to land on her rear in the dirt, causing the hood to fly off of her head.

"Ouch!" She rubbed her head, cursing herself for not thinking to brush out all of these infernal curls that her hair developed overnight before she had left.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." A black-gloved hand reached down and helped Zara up.

"Thanks." She mumbled, dusting herself off before looking at who she had bumped into.

It was Van Helsing.

And he was staring at her.

_Ohhh crap._

**AT THE CASTLE**

He didn't know why, but Dracula awoke well before noon with a feeling that something was _wrong._ Quickly he rose from his coffin and commanded the Dwergi to search the castle for any sign of trouble.

Speaking of trouble, his thoughts immediately went to his guest one floor below him. He listened for her heartbeat, but the only thing he could hear was the many small pulses of rats and other pests, as well as the bigger pests that were the Dwergi.

Panic and rage beginning to set in, he materialized down a floor, only to find the room deserted, the closet torn open, with a cloak missing, and a window ripped off of its hinges.

He snarled, turning and destroying Zara's bed in a fit of blind rage.

_That girl has tested my patience for the last time. _And with that, he began to change.

**IN THE VILLAGE**

"…Anna?" Zara froze at the hunter's question.

"Uh…" Not waiting for an answer, Van Helsing grabbed her cloaked shoulders and gently shook her back and forth.

"Are you Anna Valerious?" Zara looked up into his hopeful eyes and felt awful for what she was about to say.

"No…no I'm not." But she could understand how he might think she was. Her dream from the night before was still crystal clear in her mind, and she had noticed how all the females (herself and Anna included) all looked almost _exactly_ alike.

His shoulders sagged and he let go of her, disappointment rolling off him. "Oh…sorry about the trouble." He turned and began to walk away, but Zara grabbed his sleeve.

"Huh?" He looked over his shoulder.

"But I knew her." He gave her a quizzical look.

"So did everyone else in this village."

_DUH!_ Zara chided herself. _Now you have to tell him! It's probably better anyways. Who better to help you escape Dracula than __**Dracula's**__ killer?_ "Well…she was my cousin."

That was when Zara discovered one of the funniest things ever. That being the great monster hunter look so completely shocked and just…well, kinda stupid when she told him that she was Anna's cousin. _I so wish I had my camera._

"Wh-what's your name?" He asked after a little while.

"Zara. Zara Val-" An inhumane shriek of rage so loud the ground trembled ripped through the air, interrupting her. Horses panicked, rearing and breaking free of their harnesses, bolting from the village, their eyes wide and rolling in fright. The people screamed and scattered as a dark shape broke through the roof of the castle, shrieking at the top of its lungs,

"ZARA!"

Said girl flinched, slowly turning around to see the demon Dracula begin to swoop down towards the village. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh shiiitttttt." She gasped, paling and stumbling back, falling onto her rump in the dirt. _I-It's not even __**noon **__yet! He should be asleep!! Wh-what's he doing up?_ She screamed in her head, staring in horror as the demon-bat flew closer.

"I though he was dead!" Gabriel roared, pulling out his cross-bow.

"Zara!!"

While Van Helsing stood in the empty street, aiming for Dracula's approaching figure, Zara scrambled to her feet and fled into the maze of alleyways and houses.

She sprinted through the alleys, her cloak and hair streaming behind her as she made for the edge of the village.

All hopes of freedom, however, were destroyed when hands shot from a dark side alley, grabbed her and dragged her into the shadows.

**TBC…**

**A/N: Ok peeps. Have you just not checked for new chapters or what? Chapters 8 & 9 have been up for a few days. **

**I NEED REVIEWS!! SEE! I UPDATED WITHIN A MONTH!! I CAN DO IT!! Besides, since my ATLA story is on hold till the 15****th**** or 16****th****, I've got all that time to focus just on this. **

**Updated: 7-31-07**


	11. Third Time Unlucky

**A/N: Yays to gothlyssa, not only the TENTH reviewer, but whose B-day is the day before mine! –claps wildly- **

**Okay, so gothlyssa, YOU GET A SPECIAL PRIZE FER BEIN' DA TENTH REVIEWER!! You can: **

**request something you'd like to happen in the story**

**show me how to put up a pic so I can draw u a pic of…someone from the story. Your choice **

**or, (if you want…) I NEED A BETA READER!!! IF YOU DON'T WANT THIS, THE JOB'S UP FOR GRABS!! Cuz my spelling **_**sucks.**_

**Enjoy! **

**Third Time Unlucky**

_**RECAP**_

"_Wh-what's your name?" He asked after a little while. "Zara. Zara Val-" An inhumane shriek of rage so loud the ground trembled ripped through the air, interrupting her. Horses panicked, rearing and breaking free of their harnesses, bolting from the village, their eyes wide in fright. The people screamed and scattered as a dark shape broke through the roof of the castle, shrieking at the top of its lungs,_

"_ZARA!" Said girl flinched, slowly turning around to see the demon Dracula begin to swoop down towards the village. "No." She gasped, paling and stumbling back, falling onto her rump in the dirt. 'I-It's not even __**noon **__yet! He should be asleep!! Wh-what's he doing up?' She screamed in her head, staring in horror as the demon-bat flew closer. _

"_I though he was dead!" Gabriel roared, pulling out his cross-bow. _

"_Zara!!" _

_While VH stood in the empty street, aiming for Dracula's approaching figure, Zara scrambled to her feet and fled into the maze of alleyways and houses. _

_She sprinted through the alleys, her cloak and hair streaming behind her as she made for the edge of the village. _

_All hopes of freedom, however, were destroyed when hands shot from a dark side alley, grabbed her and dragged her into the shadows. _

_**END RECAP**_

Not thinking, just reacting, Zara grabbed the hand covering her mouth and sunk her teeth (complete with half developed fangs) into her assailant's hand.

Gabriel Van Helsing gave a shout of pain and pushed her away, rubbing the bitten hand and eyeing the two small punctures within the ring of tooth marks with distrust.

"What _are_ you? A vampire?" Gabriel had merely lost his temper, but he hadn't expected the young Valerious to flinch and examine her shoes as if they were the coolest thing since sliced bread.

"Almost." She whispered to herself, trying to stop from crying. She hadn't _asked_ for this! She wanted to be normal? Why couldn't things go back to the way they were last month? Just four weeks ago, she'd gone to a movie marathon with her parents and Ala! At that moment, Zara would have given _anything_ for her life to go back to normal.

"What?" Her head jerked upright, and the panicked look on her face clearly told him that she had not meant to speak aloud.

"Uh…nothing! I-I did-didn't say anything!" VH eyed her with suspicion, but anything he was about to say was cut off as a deathly cold, heavily accented voice cut through the tense silence that surrounded the village.

"Oh Gabriel, Oh Gabriel…" Zara began to shake, her face a deathly white as she slowly turned around to look up onto the rooftop behind her.

Sure enough, there stood Dracula.

To someone who had _not_ been living with the vampire for a month or so, (basically, to anyone but Zara) he would appear to be slightly amused and interested by the return of his murderer …well, and hungry too, I guess.

But, Zara could tell that he was not only all of the previously mentioned things, but also _seriously_ pissed off at her escape. To prove her point, his eyes shifted a fraction to the left, straight into her own wide, teal eyes. The young Valerious froze, her breath hitching in her throat as an icy fear enveloped her, accompanied by Dracula's whispered voice in her head.

'_**You shouldn't have run away, my dear…it annoys me so when my guests run away…'**_Zara's world tilted, and then spiraled into darkness as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she collapsed.

o0O0o

Zara opened her eyes with a pounding headache. _"Ouchhh…"_ She moaned as she got to her feet. _What the bloody hell did that freaking vampire __**do**__? She_ looked around and her eyes widened. _"Oh no." _

'_**Oh yes, my dear. I don't want to chance you running away again, so I've removed your spirit from your body. You can see what's going on, but only I can see you. And, most importantly, you can't control your body.' **_Zara shrieked as she ran towards where her body lay crumpled on the ground, but when she tried to touch it, something blasted her away towards Van Helsing.

Zara covered her arms with her head as she braced herself to hit him, but was shocked when she passed right through him and the house behind him, _and_ the house behind _that_ and so on and so forth until she realized that she wasn't going to stop anytime soon unless she tried herself.

So, she tried it. With her feet straight out in front of her, the young Valerious braked so suddenly that she almost flipped over._ "Cool." _She laughed as she remained airborne, her feet hanging about a foot off the ground.

Being only a spirit defiantly had its advantages she decided as she flew over the rooftops and drifted to the ground right as Van Helsing pulled out a rather large crossbow and leveled it at Dracula's chest.

That same chest that had Zara's missing body secured to it by two black-clothed arms. Zara could distantly feel Dracula's arms around her, but couldn't do anything but freak out at how Van Helsing was apparently about to shoot her to get Dracula.

Then she had a very 'DUH!' moment. _"Waitasecond!" _She screeched at Dracula, zooming around his head in frantic circles._ "I thought only werewolf stuff could-"_ But she was interrupted as the vampire smirked at his one-time friend, and drawled,

"_Really_, Gabriel. I thought you would have _remembered _that nothing can kill me." Ignoring the jibe at his memory problems, Gabriel snarled back,

"Nothing except werewolf venom and all these arrows are soaking in it."

Zara wondered if she was the only one wondering where he had gotten the stuff.

Dracula shook his head, his deep, dark laugh echoing through the silent village. In his mind, Gabriel thought '_Oh shit' _And Zara was efficiently creeped out.

"When we last met, oh what now…121 years ago, was it? That would have worked. But _now…_" He locked eyes with Zara's spirit and smirked as he stroked the cheek of her empty body, making the Zara-spirit twitch as _she_ felt it and zoomed away from him and towards Gabriel, hiding behind the monster hunter (like that would help.) "_Now_ it's useless." He stroked the body's cheek again, and Zara's spirit cringed even farther behind Gabriel as she hoped to God that spirits couldn't blush and that if they did, that certain vampires couldn't see through people to see that blush.

"And why is that?" Gabriel asked as the two began to circle each other, one being used as a shield, and the other doing a strange waltz with the empty body in his arms.

"It's because of her." Dracula simply said, petting Zara's head until her spirit wanted to shriek (from the relative safety of behind VH, of course)

"_STOP __**DOING**__ THAT, YOU FREAKING PERVERTED VAMPIRE!!! I'M NOT A DOG!!!" _Of course, since Dracula could hear her thoughts, he simply said back

'_**No. No you're not a dog. You're a wolf.**__' _

…_STFU and get out of my head, you freaking perv. _At which Dracula just laughed and ignored her.

But let's take pity on poor VH and give him some dialogue.

"What does she have to do with this?" Zara held her breath (forgetting that spirits didn't really need to breathe) as she stuck her head through Van Helsing's to see what happened.

"Because she's a werewolf." _'God, ENOUGH with the short sentences! EXPLAIN IT ALREADY!!' _Zara groaned

"But…wouldn't you die after drinking her blood?" VH asked as they continued to circle each other. Completely forgetting about staying hidden, Zara just kind of hung there in shock.

_Oh yeah… _She thought to herself, remembering the book. _Werewolf venom is poisonous to him…so since he's been drinking __**my**__ blood, which has the venom in it…_ From where he was standing, Dracula could see the gears turning in Zara's head and it amused him to no end.

So, he decided to humor her and explain it to Gabriel.

"Ordinarily, you'd be correct, Gabriel. But, I had access to Miss Zara's blood _before_ the toxin was all the way through her system, so now it's my anti-venom. As long as I have her and her blood, I'm invincible."

_Wait…_

_So… that's it?_

_I'm being __**used**_

Zara didn't know why that hurt so much. Of _course_ that was all he wanted. She was only a stupid, foolish 17-year old girl! What _else_ could it have been? It's not like she _cared_ if he actually cared about her for who she was and not her blood. Nope. She didn't care at- oh screw it. She wasn't fooling anyone.

And then something clicked. _"WAITAMINUTE!!! WHEN WAS THAT?!!"_ She screeched. _"I DIDN'T EVEN MEET YOU TILL A __**WEEK**__ AFTER I GOT BITTEN!!!! WHEN THE HELL DID YOU BITE ME?!!!"_

'_**Right after Tom bit you.' **_

_You mean…that night…oh…YOU FREAKING ASSHOLE!!! _Zara lunged for him, only to bounce back off that stupid barrier thing again. _"Damn you." _She muttered, buzzing around his head and unsuccessfully trying to kick him. And then she stopped. _"Oh…so __**that's**__ where that cloak-thing came from…"_ Dracula tried not to laugh.

'_**Speaking of which…what DID you do with my cloak?' **__"I burned it." __**'You better not have.' **__"Okay, so I haven't burned it YET, but as soon as you GIVE ME MY BODY BACK, it's right after kicking your ass on my 'To Do' List." _

Dracula merely smirked, shook his head and said, "And thus, Gabriel, I bid you adieu." And VH blinked, and the vampire was gone.

Zara zoomed after the vampire who held her body hostage, tracing them to a small alley across the town. _"What are you doing?" _She snapped at him as he leaned her empty body against a wall. Saying nothing, he reached out towards the Zara-spirit, who gave a surprised _"eep!"_ When his hand actually grabbed the front of her shirt and hauled her forwards.

"_How-?"_ She gasped, trying to hit him to make him let go, but her hands and feet passed right through him _"NO FAAAAAAAAIIIIIIR!!!!" _She whined as Dracula grinned, and then tilted her body's chin up with his spare hand. Zara's spirit narrowed its eyes and she snarled, _"Don't you __**dare**__, corpse-breath."_

"Name calling isn't nice, my dear." He slowly leaned in towards the throbbing vein in her body's neck as the spirit he held shrieked and demanded that he stop.

But… he didn't.

Big surprise.

The Zara-spirit felt a sharp pain in her neck as the vampire sunk his fangs into its body's neck, and suddenly, there was a loud thumping in her ears, and Zara opened her physical eyes to see the top of Dracula's head and feel her blood draining out of her. She tried to struggle, but the blood loss was already making her head spin.

Finally he stopped and Dracula pulled back, his hand slipping off from where it her been fisted in her shirt. Without him holding her up, Zara slumped to the ground, bent over as she held her burning neck and gasping half-hearted curses at the undead man towering above her.

The pain in her neck had receded to a dull throbbing at the base of her skull, and Dracula was beginning to bend down towards her when Van Helsing rounded the corner and squeezed off five or six shots at the vampire.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Zara dug her fingers into the cool soil and raced off, rounding the corner just as Dracula's fingers brushed the edge of her cape. Realizing that the darn thing would just make her easier to catch, Zara all but ripped it off of her, leaving herself in a long-sleeved dark green shirt and jeans.

And bare feet. _Ouch._ Zara decided. The cold had numbed her feet so that she couldn't feel anything, but she desperately hoped that they weren't bleeding.

"Valerious! In here!" A voice cried out in accented English.

Zara stopped and turned to see an elderly woman holding open the door to her house.

"Hurry! Before the Demon gets here!" Without a second thought, Zara turned and ran for the open door.

…and found herself lying flat on her back, halfway through the door with an extremely sore nose about two seconds later.

"…ouch…" The old lady was confused for a moment, and then a look of pure sadness came over her face as she said,

"I, mistress of this home, give you permission to enter." Zara slowly got up and hesitantly stuck her hand out, searching for the barrier she had hit. "Oh, come on." The old lady grumbled, grabbed the searching hand and pulled Zara inside, slamming the door behind her just as a roar or rage shook the entire village.

"Um…thank you?" Zara hesitantly asked as the old woman's face contorted with rage as she glared out the window at the Dracula-beast, who was currently fighting with Van Helsing.

The elder sighed, and rubbed her head, muttering something under her breath in Romanian the Zara only half understood as her cursing Dracula for something.

_Oh…_

The old lady was pissed because Dracula had bitten her. And wasn't there something about vampires not being able to enter a house before the house's master gave them permission to do so? Zara suddenly felt miserable and wanted nothing more than to go back home (to the US, that is) and hide in her room for the rest of the day.

But that wasn't an option now.

What mattered now was that Gabriel was loosing, and would probably be killed, as would these people who had just helped her, and all because of her.

"No…" _I am NOT going to sit around here and wait for people to die! _She slowly got to her feet. _My family has protected these people against Dracula for centuries. Now that I'm the last, I have to finish this. _She bowed respectfully to the woman, gave her thanks, opened the door and ran like hell.

o0O0o

Since Dracula was pretty much indestructible now, Gabriel didn't have a snowball's chance in

Hell of winning in a fight against him. Unfortunately, after his fifth or so head-on impact with a house, Gabe's brain had kinda shut down, so the fact that he was getting his ass kicked didn't really sink in until Dracula had him pinned to a wall and was about to bite his head off.

But then, Zara saved VH from decapitation by running out of a house and sprinting in the opposite direction.

Sure enough, his supply of werewolf anti-venom was more important (at that moment) to Dracula than beheading his one-time friend. But, not missing a chance for even the slightest bit of revenge, he tossed Gabe into the (stone) bridge that connected the village to Castle Frankenstein and flew after Zara, who was now just throwing open the front door of the Valerious manor and disappearing into the abandoned house.

o0O0o

She didn't matter anymore. She knew that she'd be captured and reduced to only a source of food/invincibility once more in a matter of moments.

But that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that everyone else was safe.

A sad smile on her face, Zara slowed to a walk and waited for Dracula to catch her, burning time by examining her family home.

She was in some sort of study.

But it was in ruins.

"What happened here?" She trailed her hand over the bullet hole in the patterned wall, looking with confusion at the cool stone floor, and then her eyes trailed a path of long-dried black gunk to a half-rotten wooden stake covered in the stuff.

"Oh!" Dracula had been here, and there had been a fight. But whatever had happened must have happen a _long_ time ago, because every weapon that her eyes drank up, lying around like a child's discarded toys, were rusted and breaking, the black blood at her feet had dried up long ago and everything was covered in a layer of dust a few inches thick.

Finally, after examining the ruins of a chair and a desk with papers thrown all around, her eyes finally caught sight of a large stain on the opposite wall. It was a blood stain, like the black stain on the floor a few feet behind her…but that stain was black, and _this_ was a brownish-red.

Zara sucked in a breath, bile rising at the back of her throat as a rare wind stirred the study's dead air and the scent of a long-dead and rotting body hit her nose with enough potency to make her gag.

Finally mustering her courage and swallowing her revulsion, Zara rather childishly pulled the neck of her shirt over her nose and crossed the room with hesitant steps until she stood before the large dent in the wall that was stained with a human's blood.

_What happened here? _

She had read in her book about Van Helsing and Anna, the ancestor who she had never known but according to the book (which scarily enough, already had a chapter on her, complete with everything that had happened so far (IT'S AALLLIIIVEEE!!!! To quote a certain doctor)) she looked a lot like.

But they had battled with Dracula in his icy castle, not here.

That's about when her eyes trailed down to the floor.

Zara screamed and jumped back, tripping over an overturned chair and raising a loud cloud of dust when she hit the floor. After it and her coughing had subsided, Zara checked to make sure she hadn't been hallucinating when…Damn. It was still there.

What "it" was was a skeleton with only the tiniest bit of flesh left on its bones. It lay in a crumpled, slumped over heap, apparently in the sitting position it had been in when it had been killed.

The once expensive, fashionable-yet-practical clothes were now moth-eaten, dusty and looked like something that belonged in a museum of the 19th century. Long-dead curly brown hair hung by strands of parchment-like skin, the high ponytail that had once adorned the scalp now hung, trapped, in the skeleton's ribcage, decayed scalp still attached.

The knee-high boots hung, dusty and worn, off of pale shinbones, drooping pathetically down towards their blood-covered soles. Black leather gloves were peeling away from the finger bones they covered, white bone peeking through the black leather like stars in the sky. A bandana was sagging off of the crack-riddled neck bone as the empty eye sockets leered at Zara, the teeth grinning at her behind pieces of mostly-rotten flesh. The scrap of skin was on its neck, where, even from where she sat, Zara could see the two puncture marks.

_Dracula…_

Zara hadn't known this person, hadn't known their name, history or even if they were male or female. But that fact that Dracula had killed that person and left them there to rot for God-knows-how-long made her mad beyond all belief.

In a rage, Zara stormed around the manor, getting lost a few times, but ending up in the grand kitchen, disheartened at her failure to find and beat up Dracula.

Sighing, she hoisted herself onto the island counter, swinging her legs as she stared absentmindedly at her swinging feet and wondered what she was gong to do-

Two arms slid around her waist, pulling her backwards towards the edge of the counter that faced the main hall.

"Let me go, asshole!" Zara yelled, struggling to get out of the vampire's grasp. Unfortunately for her, blood loss and exhaustion combined to make it impossible for her to break free of his hold on her.

"Why? And what have I done to earn the affectionate title of asshole?" Dracula grinned into the back of her head, knowing all too well about what had her pissed and, quite frankly, he couldn't care less. The girl had attacked him and he had defended himself. End of story.

Also, he was still amused from following her around the manor as _she _tried to find _him_. **That **had been funny.

"You killed that person back there and left them to rot for...for…!"

"119 years to the week, my dear."

"WHATEVER!! YOU KILLED THEM-"

"Her."

"AND LEFT HER TO ROT!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU-!!"

"Why didn't I do _what?_" He asked coldly, the ice in his voice freezing over Zara's rage in seconds. "I gave her the exact honor in death as she would have given me." He hissed into her ear, yanking cruelly on her loose ponytail. "If it had been _her_ standing victorious over _my_ corpse, do you _really_ think she would have shed any tears?" Zara's silence was enough of an answer. "Do you think that she would have buried me? _No._ She would have left me there to rot, or dumped my body over a cliff. I did no less then defend myself when she attacked me, _unprovoked_, and did no less to her than she would have done to me." Zara grinned without any joy, trying to hold back tears.

"You said she attacked you '_unprovoked_',"

"She did." Zara gave a laugh that was as dry and cold and humorless as Dracula's voice, and the ice in her voice matched his when she next spoke, rage quickly rising to heat her body against his deathly cold one.

"I think the _brutal killing of one's family_ is provocation enough." And with that, she slammed her head back into Dracula's face, feeling something crunch and the dampness of dead blood in her hair as Dracula's shock allowed her to slide out of his grasp and run out of the door.

Zara ran, not knowing why or where she was running, her head buzzing as images of the dead body, the hate on the old woman's face, and Dracula lowering his head towards the neck of her empty body, and voices rang in her ears. _You're being __**used**__…all he wants is your blood and the joy of shaming your family… "I gave her the exact honor in death as she would have given me."… "I think the brutal killing of one's family is provocation enough"… "You killed her and left her to rot!" _

She stumbled through the town square and ran for the river, rage and confusion and hurt and sorrow blurring her world with tears until she couldn't tell river from ground, ground from sky.

Of course, with a slight klutz like Zara, this spells disaster.

Sure enough, not even all the way out of town, Zara tripped and couldn't find the strength to get up; crying for herself, the dead girl back in the house, her dead family and because of what being the last meant she had to do.

There was another roar of rage from behind her as Dracula kicked the front door of the manor so hard that it flew off of the hinges and blasted through two houses.

Crap…Zara had been so mad that she hadn't been thinking when she'd broken Drac's nose and who knows what else. Of _course_ he'd be pissed enough to…to…she didn't know what he'd do. She didn't think that she'd ever seen or heard him this mad before.

Ok, so she had run away, led his murderer right to him, had run away from him again, called him names and broken his face. Of _course_ he was going to be mad!

Fear gave her the strength she needed to pull herself in the small beam of light that painted one of the alleys, and she stood there, trembling in the deathly silence that had enveloped the village after the roar.

The urge to be back in her bed with the covers over her head and hugging her pillow, safe from the world, returned stronger than ever and Zara squeezed her eyes closed with a desperate wish and a terrified sob that when she opened them, all this would be over; that she would wake up and see that it was all a dream.

As if.

With her eyes closed, Zara couldn't see the sunlight disappear, couldn't see the black shadow behind her until death-pale hands grabbed her arms and spun her into a cold, rib-crushing, breath-stealing (and not in a good way) embrace.

She opened her tear-filled blue-green eyes to find herself looking into Dracula's icy blue, rage-filled orbs. He smiled, the cold expression of anger chilling her spine as his fangs grew past his chin and her world went black for good.

**Man, I'm evil. I don't update for MONTHS (see why in my new oneshot and PLEASE review while you're there) And now I'm back with a CLIFFIE!!! –laughs evilly with evil theme music and lightning in background- -cough- ok, I'm good. **

**Oh, and don't be asking me about why Zara's mood changes so much. Fellow members of the female race should have a clue but you guys out there might not. **

**I'll try to update as soon as possible!**

**Update: 7-31-07**


	12. The Necklace

**AN: Oh…my…god…never ever EVER let your little brother watch VH and then Shrek 2. It's BAD. VERY **_**VERY**_** BAD. Mine just did, and you know that scene where Gingy goes "It's a **_**thong!**_**" When he sees Pinocchio in the pink thong? Well…my brother somehow came up with "DRACULA'S PINOCCHIO!!!" When I went "What?" I was answered with: "HE WEARS HOT PINK THONGS!!!" **

…**yeah…**

**and then I had to clean up the soda I sprayed all over the place upon hearing that…**

**-cough- ok then, hoping that you guys aren't comatose at that mental image… on with the chapter!**

**Oh, and THANK YOU, gothlyssa!!!! Your review made me so happy!!!! May I also add that it was –cough- THE ONLY FREAKING REVIEW ALL CHAPTER!!!! God, people, I got, like, 100 FRICKING HITS ON THAT CHAPTER, AND GOTHLYSSA WAS THE **_**ONLY **_**ONE TO REVIEW?! –is mad at all other non-reviewers- but….-sigh- this story can't get by with only 1 reviewer…tho u ARE wonderful, gl, it's just….-sighs- whatever. Forget it. **

**Disclaimer: nope. Don't own. I'll trade my brother for the rights, tho. Jk, jk**

The Necklace

_Zara was in her family home, staring at the slumped, dejected and dust covered skeleton. _

_The slumped, dejected and dust covered skeleton who suddenly jerked its head up, black sockets staring at the survivor, bones clacking as it stood up, grinning grotesquely as it walked towards her. With every step, greenish organs grew, covered then by deflated veins, black muscle and grey skin _**(A/N: what? She's DEAD) **_which were in turn covered as her fine clothes mended and became partially whole once more. _

_Now, a woman in her 20's stood before her, dressed in all black and dark blue, brown eyes dead and decaying (literally) over her mask. _

_With one half-rotten hand, she pulled down her mask, revealing death-grayed flesh that peeled away from grinning yellow teeth. Zara's breath caught in her throat as she stared in horror, only to back away until she tripped as the skeleton reached out for her. _

"_N-no!" She screamed, terror giving her tunnel vision she scrambled away as fast as she could without taking her eyes off of the corpse. "D-don't touch me!" _

_Fingers of bone and dead flesh grabbed her hair, harshly yanking her up and towards the grinning fiend. Zara screamed again as her teeth sharpened into fangs, diving towards her face-_

She was still screaming when she woke up.

Zara jolted upright, covered in sweat and screaming at the top of her lungs, before realizing that it had only been a dream.

Even then, she panicked because she didn't immediately recognize where she was.

And when she did…

Zara screeched and clawed her way out of the icy-cold coffin she had been laying in, and then scrambling across the ice-cold room.

"Oh…my…God…" She gasped; hand over her pounding heart as she leaned against a wall, eyes closed as she tried to return her pulse to normal. But, sadly, when she mentally reviewed all that had happened before she had been knocked unconscious, her pulse sped right back up again.

_Damn…he caught me…_ Zara dragged her hands down her face, pulling the skin down as she groaned. _He is going to be sooo pissed at me…_ And that thought scared her more than any other.

A chill went up her spine, followed by a wave of irrational fear. She knew that he wouldn't kill her; after all, he himself had admitted that he needed her blood to survive against anything. But, he was still the vampire that killed her family…

That was it. The irrational fear and terror took over, and Zara got tunnel vision once more, starting to hyperventilate as it took over her body, leaving only one thought behind.

_I have to get out!!_

o0O0o

Dracula had been watching all of this from the ceiling, but made no move to go after Zara as she fled, merely smirking as he waited for a few moments.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

"OUCH!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!"

There we go.

Still grinning, Dracula dropped down to the floor, taking his time as he strolled leisurely towards where Zara's shouts of frustration were coming from.

o0O0o

Zara had been having an extremely good escape. She hadn't run into anything (or anyone) and had gotten out the castle with relative success. "Relative" meaning that she had only gotten lost, say, oh…two or three times.

And so, after finally getting outside, Zara was smart enough to take the actual path this time instead of sliding down the hill on her butt again. So, she had been running down the old road as fast as she could. One more step and she'd be out of the castle grounds-

For the second times in as many days, Zara ran into something she couldn't see.

This pissed her off to no end, and so she screamed (from on her back in the dirt), "OUCH!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!"

"'That', my dear, would be the wonderful side effect of my gift around your neck." Zara tilted looked at him (upside down, to her) and gave him a weird look that pretty much said "oookkkkaaaayyyy then…" She then pulled herself up, dusted off, and turned to glare at the vampire.

"_What_ 'gift around my neck'? I don't _do_ necklaces." He grinned.

"You do now. Look down, please." Zara looked down, and could just barely see something purple around her neck.

"_WHAT?_" She wrapped her fingers around what was now obviously a silk band around her neck with a stone right over her windpipe. "TAKE IT OFF!!" She screeched.

"Why?" Giving a huff of frustration, Zara reached around to the back of her neck to try and find the clasp.

One problem. There _was_ no clasp.

After discovering this, Zara instead hooked her fingers inside the smooth band and pulled as hard as she could.

And, although Dracula found this whole thing _very _amusing, Zara only succeeded in half strangling herself. So, she took a break, and then went right back to trying to get the thing off.

Sadly, (and also quite amusingly) all this accomplished was Zara pulling so hard that she tripped herself and fell on her face in the dirt as Dracula tried not to snort, he was laughing so hard.

But, karma made a comeback when Dracula was trying so hard to stop from laughing, that when he reached back to lean on the door for support; he missed and completely wiped out.

Zara blinked at the vampire's surprised face a few feet away from hers. At two seconds after the fall and counting, her lips curled into a smile. At five, her shoulders were shaking from the effort of holding back her laughter. And at ten, even Dracula's glare that said 'laugh and die', the urge to laugh became too much, and Zara was rolling around on the ground, laughing so hard that bloody tears were running down her face.

Of course, one of the downsides about the force-field that Dracula never had a chance to explain was that if he wished, he could alter the range so that it reacted to where _he _was.

He did this now as he stalked inside the castle.

Zara's sudden outburst of curses as she was shoved after him, though amusing, did nothing to help his bruised ego.

o0O0o

The minute Dracula had crossed the threshold of the castle; Zara had found herself being more or less dragged after him by the freaking force-field.

She did not go quietly.

"WHAT THE –BEEP-? GODDAMN IT, YOU –BEEPITY BEEP BEEP BEEPING CORPSE!!!!-" Was more or less what was coming out of her mouth as the 17-year-old was dragged along about 10 feet behind Dracula.

And she only increased her volume when Dracula picked her up by the back of her shirt and more or less threw her into her room, slamming and locking the door behind her.

As soon as she recovered from being launched into her dresser, Zara rolled to her feet and charged at the door, leaping for the quickly-closing door and screaming "NO!!". But, she was too late, and the heavy, ornate door slammed shut in her face, and she gave a muffled shout as she ran right into it.

Unfortunately, Dracula was already in his "room", and a three foot thick stone floor separated him from his "guest's" enraged screeching and pounding on her door. _She might just actually dent it if she keeps this up…_ Dracula thought to himself, desperately latching onto a thought, _any _thought that would stop his mind from replaying his wipe out of a few moments ago.

o0O0o

After she couldn't feel her fists anymore, Zara gave up on punching the door, but settled for one last kick before flopping down onto her giant bed and glared at its canopy. But then, a smile curled onto her face as she replayed the vampire's wipe out in her mind.

But soon, a thought drifted into her head.

It was not a nice thought.

Zara grinned at the open window in her room as she remembered a large box that had been sitting in the front hall. She had seen it briefly on her way out, and again briefly on her way back in a few moments later, and she had a VERY good idea of what it was.

_Thank you, Ala. _

Zara slipped out of the window, and quickly made her way to the front hall, grinning down at the large cardboard back that said "FROM U.S.A. TO ROMANINA. URGENT." And then there was her best friend's bubbly handwriting that said "TO THE NEWEST OCCUPANT OF VAMPIRE COUNTRY, LOVE ALA. P.S DON'T GET BITTEN BY ANY HOT VAMPIRE DUDES TILL I GET THERE –heart-"

The Valerious smiled sadly at the package. _Sorry Ala. It's too late for that. _And then she had to block out her vampire side cheering over that she had admitted that Dracula was hot.

It was quite hard.

But, voices in her head aside, Zara finally succeeded in pushing the heavy box right before the doors to Dracula's crypt, and all but ripped it open, cooing in delight as she laid eyes on one of her most precious possessions, and the only one that had been too big to bring with her on the trip last week. **(Ok, I know that the ever-changing timing is confusing you guys, but Zara's been there for a week, ok? Ok.) **

After she had finished up, Zara scurried back to her room, delighting in how her new lycanthrope powers enabled her to quickly skim over the stone floor, moving so fast that her surroundings were blurred.

She retrieved her laptop from her desk where it had been recharging and brought up her favorites on the internet, selecting the one that said "How to Annoy Dracula". True, it had been written for Bram Stoker's original version, but with a few modifications, it would fit her purposes just fine.

Snickering to herself, Zara gathered up the few items on the list in her possession and quietly as she could, propped open the doors to the crypt and crept inside, keeping her heartbeat as level as possible while moving as fast as she could.

After she was done, Zara checked her watch and noted with satisfaction that it was only two in the afternoon, aka, two o' clock A.M for her "host."

"Show time." She whispered to herself, sitting down on the cushioned barstool that she had reconstructed moments ago and twirling her favorite two drumsticks, savoring in the feel of the smooth wood beneath her fingers and the last moments of silence before swinging the sticks in a downwards ark.

"It's payback time, Drac."

**I feel evil. Do you feel evil? Writing this was FUN!!! (Sub-consciousness starts singing the FUN song from Sponge Bob.) (Sub-consciousness is promptly kicked into corner) **

**OK, back on topic. gothlyssa, I await your request of what you want to happen next, and EVERYBODY else, PLEASE review. I mean, REALLY PEOPLE. It won't KILL you to hit that button. **

**Sorry for the short chapter, but life's been hectic. I won't go into details, but the next chapter should be up…hopefully no longer than a month. **

**K, bye!**

**-dl**

**READ. Ok, you've done it. Now, **

**REVIEW. It's not too hard and not too much to ask. **

**End of story. **

**Update: 7-31-07**


	13. It Takes a True Man to Wear Pink

**A/N: I LOVE reviews. I also now 3 gothlyssa, devil-she-cares and blackrose305. I feel so loved…. But…on with the chapter!!!! Here for the disclaimer is…ALA!!!**

**Alana: hey, peoples!!!**

**dl: sorry…she's kinda a prep…**

**Alana: which is, like, really weird, since you're, like…well….kinda goth-ish**

**Zara: I am not! **

**Ala: …**

**Zara: just cuz I don't like pink and aeropostale or whatever DOES ****NOT**** MAKE ME A GOTH!!!!**

**Ala: whatev. **

**Zara: hey…I like AE, don't I?**

**Ala: -sighs- I guess…**

**Zara: ….weren't we supposed to do something here?**

**Ala: oh yeah!!!**

**Both: -ahem- **

**Ala: dl would like to thank, once more, all who reviewed-**

**Zara: -cough- three people –cough- OUCH!! Why'd you elbow me??**

**Ala: you interrupted. Now, dl would like us to say-**

**Zara: -while she's battering away lawyers-**

**dl: -in background- off! OFF I TELL YOU!!! –smacking away lawyers with her keyboard- **

**Ala: -elbows Zara in stomach again- that she DOES NOT, in any way, shape, or form own Van Helsing. **

**Zara: yeah, just us and her plot. **

**dl: and with that being said, enjoy Zara's revenge! Oh, and as a side note, I was re-reading chapter 11, and just so happened to be listening to Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" and it might just have been me, but it seemed to go pretty well with the story as Zara was running around the village, trying to get away form Dracula. Try it!**

**The pranks in this chapter have been based off of the story ****How to Annoy the Van Helsing Characters**** by ****petewentz'sno2fan****, ok? I just twisted it to fit my equally twisted needs. –smiles- **

**Zara: WAIT!!! YOU FORGOT TO EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENT FONT STUFF!!!**

**dl: oh…I did?**

**Ala: Yeah. Let us do it!!!!**

**dl: I don't have a choice, do I?**

**Z&A: Nope.**

**dl: ok, just checking. **

**Z&A: OK THEN!! Let's do this!!!**

"Bleh." normal dialogue

_Hello… _thinking

"_**Yo." **_Dracula talking in someone else's head

_Grr! _Zara's werewolf side

_**Yay! **_Zara's vampire side

**A/N: yo, peoples!!! **the psychotic authoress

**dl: you what, just- just be quiet. **

**Z&A: Make us. **

**Dl: THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I FREAKING DID!!! I MADE YOU UP!!! ****I CREATED YOU!!! **

**Z&A: so?**

**dl: TT i get no respect around here...**

It Takes a True Man to Wear Pink

Dracula had not been in the greatest of moods when he had gone to sleep.

This being said, he was in an even _worse _mood when he was crudely and suddenly yanked from his much-needed sleep by the crash of drums and cymbals.

The noise did not go away and merely increased in volume and annoying-ence as Dracula stared up at the ceiling above him, trying not to loose his temper and kill the teenager who was doubtlessly the source of the racket-

"THAT IS **IT!!!**" The vampire roared, bolting upright in his coffin-type thing, only to stare in dumb surprise at the large pink splash of paint on his clothes.

Now, if it had been _any_ other color, he would have been out there, chucking those damned drums out of the window and into the ravine faster than you can say "Count Vladislaus Dragulia". But _pink??? _There was no way in HELL that he'd be wearing that outfit a nanosecond longer than he had to.

So, trying to block out the slamming and ringing coming from outside the doors, Dracula more or less jumped out of the coffin and made a beeline for his closet.

And yes, Dracula DOES change his clothes.

Of course, since they were all that same black 1800's army-type thing, you couldn't really tell, but he _does_ change his clothes.

Honest.

Anyways, Dracula stormed to his closet, threw open the doors, and-

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY CLOTHES?!!!"

Outside, Zara began to laugh so hard that she almost fell off of her stool, but didn't stop drumming, rolling right into another song.

Ah, yes. All the wonderful, black outfits in our favorite vampire's closet were now all hot pink and white clothes.

_Girl's _hot pink and white clothes.

You see, before she had left (and for years before that) Ala had been trying to get her friend to wear brighter colors, other than black, purple, white, blue and green. ("White IS a bright color!!" "Well, duh! But you can't just have ONE bright color to wear!!! Here, try these!!!" "ACKK! THE PREPPIE GIRLY-NESS!! IT BUUURRRRNNNNNNNSS!!!!!")

So, she had showered Zara with gifts in the form of outfits in Alana's own two favorite colors: hot pink and white.

His eye began to twitch, as he scowled at the bright colors, and shoved them aside, venturing deeper into the small ("small" is a relative term. Compared to the rest of the castle, the closet was small, but to us "normal" people…well…it's like as big as my room _and_ my bathroom put together. TxT I wish MY closet was that big…-cries-) room in hopes of finding something nice and dark.

Nothing black came into sight, but he _did_ find several pairs of high heels (all at least 5 inches) and girl's sandals in, you guessed it, good ol' hot pink & white.

And then, the icing on the cake, the one single surviving black outfit, but covered with the (hot) pink words of, "Black is SOOO last season, Choc. Now, Pink & white are ALL the rage. Get with the program, dude." and then there was a heart and a big Z.

"Zara…" Dracula growled, eyes burning electric blue in anger.

He turned on his heel and stalked towards the doors to the hall, only to stop and stare at the brightly-wrapped box that was sitting before the large black doors, with a large pick bow and a card that said "To Count Chocula" in big, scrawling letters.

_Chocula? _Dracula thought to himself. _Who the hell…oh, isn't that some kind of cereal? _And then, _Oh…so that's what "Choc" meant… _

Ah yes. The Count Chocula cereal. That chocolaty, bat-shaped, marshmallow-filled sugar cereal we all know and love. But, more importantly, the chocolaty, bat-shaped, marshmallow-filled sugar cereal that _Zara_ knows and loves. And from that love had sprung a new nickname that would _never_ be forgotten and used quite frequently in the coming years during (the many, many) situations where Dracula and Zara would clash personalities.

His eardrums still ringing from the seemingly never-ending drumming coming from outside his crypt, Dracula ripped open the box, ignoring the hot pink tissue/wrapping paper fluttering to the ground.

He stared at the thing inside the box.

Zara held her breath, slowing her beating of the drums to a soft drum roll as she waited for the reaction.

"Oh, you are _so_ dead."

"AUGHH!!!" She jumped about a mile when those deadly words were whispered into her ear. Once she returned to Earth, Zara slowly turned around to see Count "Chocula" glaring at her over the large, werewolf venom-covered wooden stake he held in his hands, still surrounded by a few wisps of pink tissue/wrapping paper.

Zara gave him a sheepish smile, and then she was bolting down the hall, screaming at the top of her lungs. She sped around the corner and was gone, much to Dracula's surprise. He stood there, looking a bit confused over how fast she had disappeared, and then grinned darkly, showing a little fang. This was going to be interesting. An untrained lycan, not even past her first moon, versus a 450+ year old vampire. Not like there was any question who would win, but it was certainly going to be more fun then that same vampire against a regular 17 year old normal human girl.

Strangely enough, Zara found herself smiling as she sped through the halls of the castle. After a few moments, she decided it was the rush of feeling her new werewolf powers reacting to everything that came her way at the top speed she was traveling at.

Everything that is, except for the vampire that had just dropped down in front of her.

"WHOA!!!" In a futile attempt not to hit him, Zara went from about 60 mph to 0 in a split second, resulting in an ungraceful roll right into Dracula's feet. "I _really_ need to work on those split-second stops." Zara mumbled to herself as she tried to make the world stop spinning.

Dracula chuckled; the now all too familiar sound snapped Zara back to reality as she looked up at him and scowled.

"You cheated."

Now, out everything she could have said, that was the one thing that the vampire had been least expecting, and he vocalized this with a profound "…_what?_" Zara laughed at the confusion, rolling to her feet.

"You cheated." Dracula gave her a look that said "what the hell are talking about?" Zara sighed in mock disappointment.

"Zara…" At the warning growl, Zara quickly moved on, but kept her childish pout on as she whined how unfair it was when all he did was fly everywhere, or teleport or whatever he did to get around so fast.

Then it was Zara's turn to be shocked as Dracula laughed. It was a curious laugh. It wasn't a true laugh, but it wasn't as dark as his normal laugh. It, well…it scared her. If his laugh was dark, he was plotting something, or, or just…being evil. If it was a real laugh…well, Zara didn't know the answer to that one, seeing how this laugh was the closest to a _real_ laugh that she'd ever heard from him.

But she was snapped back on track by his purr of, "What's wrong, my dear?" She began to narrow her eyes at that despised title, but then he continued, "Why did I cheat?" Eyes still narrowed, but inwardly relieved that he hadn't referred to her as "my dear" again (oh _god,_ did she despise that title) Zara promptly did yet _another_ thing that no one else –living _or_ undead- would dare to, which just added to the already ridiculously long list.

She poked him in the head.

Repeatedly.

Now, this doesn't seem like much, but I talk from personal experience when I say that it gets _very_ annoying when someone is poking you and just won't stop.

Which was exactly what Zara was doing.

"You flew. Or materialized, or whatever the hell you just did to get from all that way behind me to right in front of me." With each word, she poked him again in the forehead, until he finally lost patience and snagged the finger out of the air with a growl and pulled it and its owner into reach. (Zara had been poking him from as far away as possible.)

Zara "eeped!" as she suddenly found herself so close to the vampire that their noses were centimeters from touching, and her teal eyes were staring up a few inches into his icy blue ones. "Ah-um-whaaa…?" She found herself beginning to blush, and fought it back down for a minute or two, only to loose when he gave her a purely predatory smile that gave her feeling that she could only compare to the time Ala's little brother, Matt, had dropped an ice cube down her back.

_Oh __**shit.**_ Dracula only grinned wider when he heard that thought.

"Alright then…" Dracula leaned to the side so that his cool breath was right in Zara's ear. She shivered, her eyes glazing over as she just stared at the wall behind them, eyes beginning to glaze over and her face already bright red.

_Damn him…he's doing this on purpose…_ Zara was currently finding it a bit hard to breathe, and could feel her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. And she knew that as pissed as Dracula was, and as _hungry_ as he (possibly) was, that him hearing her erratic heartbeat when he was this close to her could only lead to one thing. _Oh no. _

"Oh yes." Dracula couldn't resist muttering as he bowed his head towards her neck-

-and promptly ran into the necklace he himself had given her. "Damn."

After taking a second to figure out what had just happened, Zara laughed and laughed and laughed. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GAVE ME THIS THING!!!" She had to take a few steps back. "I hahahahaha can't believe ahahahahaha that you-you-ahahahahaha…you gave me ahahahahaha the thing that meant ahahahaha that you couldn't haha suck my blood anymore!!" She had to stop and just laugh. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you stupid-" Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

_Oh __**SHIT.**__ I did NOT just call him that!!!_

Dracula gave her a dangerous smile as he quickly closed up the space between them, backing Zara into the front door. Her brain made a feeble attempt at trying to distract her from the dangerous situation by throwing up the fact that they were already on the other end of the castle.

"Would you like to repeat that, my dear?" Zara was so scared by the look in his eye that she didn't even object to- ok I lied.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!" She screamed in his ear, and then gasped in fear and slammed her hands back over her mouth. _What was that?! I didn't mean to say that!!!_

Momentarily blown away by this, Dracula blinked once or twice, and then looked back down at Zara. Sure enough, there were the escaping threads of gold in her eyes. Zara hadn't realized it yet, but the werewolf venom in her veins was beginning to kick up in preparation for her first full moon in a few days.

Interestingly enough, Zara's 18th birthday, her first full moon, _and_ the Halloween party were all on the same night. Now that was going to be interesting.

Alas, that is a topic for another chapter.

Anyways, he smirked down at her, which made Zara gulp. "I cheated. So…what about it?" Zara got the same feeling that she had when she had screamed at Dracula.

"I don't see why you're mad." She snapped, but her good mood returning none-the-less at the approaching prank. "All I wanted to do was broaden your fashion horizons, Choc." Dracula's eye twitched, but he said nothing, so Zara kept right on talking, hoping to finish the last part of the prank(s) before he exploded.

"Cuz, you know that it takes a _true_ man to wear pink, right?"

There was a dead silence from the dead and half-dead occupants of the hall as Dracula scowled at Zara before grinding out through clenched teeth, "Are you implying that-"

"-That you don't have the balls? Cuz yes. Yes I am." The crude words rolled right off of Zara's tongue, and Dracula's long-dead, but still working, brain mourned that such a beautiful mouth was capable of such nasty words.

And then that part of his brain was kicked into a corner by the _rest_ of his brain. Thoughts like those, he mused to himself, should be saved until after Zara's birthday.

"Such dirty words, my dear." Vladislaus grabbed her chin and harshly yanked it up towards him. Her sharp exhalation of breath at this painful gesture only further proved how pissed he was right now. "Besides, don't you know…" They were suddenly back in front of the door to his room. "…that the neck is not the only place vampires can feed from?"

Zara's good mood disappeared as fast as a piece of chocolate in front of dl after her "no chocolate ban" was over. **(A/N: 3 sorry, I just had to put that in.)** "Eh...wh-what?" Her eyes, teal once more, were wide and filled with panic. _Damn! And just when I thought I was safe, too!!! _The teenager frantically cast her brain about to find something, _anything_ that would distract her "host".

"I was serious about that pink thing, though." Zara told him, trying to keep her voice level as she cast around behind her with one hand, searching for the piece of her drum set that she _knew_ was there. "I bet that you really _don't _have the balls to wear something pink." Her hand closed around something cold and metallic just as one part of Dracula's brain once more mourned how she could say _that_ and another promptly came up with several _other_ things that her lips should be doing.

The rest of his brain immediately turned on the perverted part and beat it into a corner.

Vlad was positive that he'd finally gone insane.

But, he was painfully ripped form his moment of self realization by the (quite painful) sensation of having something slammed into the side of his head.

Zara released the cymbal, and it fell to the ground with a ringing crash that echoed in the air as she staggered back, not believing what she'd just done. The feeling that she'd gotten when she screamed at him came back full force, and she watched helplessly from the sidelines as her body picked up her "present" to Dracula and, taking full advantage of her newfound speed, tackled the vampire just as he was getting up, straddling him while she held the stake up high and began to swing it down towards his heart.

Vlad had just recovered from his cymbal to the head and was staggering upright when something slammed into his stomach. His head hit the stone floor with a nasty crack and he lay there, stunned as he stared up at Zara, whose eyes were now completely golden; begin to swing the wooden stake she held towards his heart.

He struggled, trying to get his body to respond before the foolish girl on his chest (the perverted part of his brain approved of the position) killed him, and herself.

But then… she stopped.

The stake was resting on his chest, the werewolf venom on it beginning to mix into the pink paint of his chest as he stared at it in surprise.

_KILL HIM!! KILL THE BASTARD NOW!!!_

_**NO!!! DON'T HURT HIM!!! **_The werewolf turned on the bride and screamed,

_WHY NOT?!!_

_**Because, stupid, if HE dies, WE die!!! **_The bride now turned to the human and asked, _**Besides…do you think you could kill him? **_As her two warring sides waited for her answer, Zara's trembling hand clenched the stake, not caring about the splinters digging into her flesh as tears began to form in her eyes.

_I-I-_

_Yes?_

_**Yes?**_

"I-I-…can't…" As she whispered the last word, the whole scene became too much for her, and Zara threw the stake aside, and pushed herself off of the vampire, running for her room as fast as she could.

o0O0o

Zara ran into her room and slammed the heavy door behind her. For a moment, she just leaned against the thing, before sliding to the ground with a thump and wrapping her arms around her knees as well as resting her forehead against her kneecaps and just cried.

_Why couldn't I kill him? I had the perfect opportunity to do it! _She searched and searched, but she couldn't find the answer.

_Why didn't I kill him?_

**A/N: Yeah…I know that it starts out all happy, and then gets all depressing….but whatever. And also, the reason that Chocula is starting to get perverted is because of this: The bride-thing works 2 ways. **

**Explanation: When, for example, Dracula bit Verona, Marishka and Aleera, even though they (I'm assuming) already liked him, being bonded to him like that made them like him even more. The same thing goes for Dracula. Being bonded to someone builds on affection that's already there. So yes, Drac **_**does**_** like Zara ;) he's just waiting until she's older, cuz she's still underage. (He'll wait till she's in her 20's)**

**Look! It took me less than a month to update!!! YAYS!!! **

**Update: 7-31-07**


	14. Alana

**A/N: Thanks again to all who reviewed!!!! **

**Ok, now about this chapter. We're switching perspectives from Drac & Zara over to Ala back in the US. **

**Also, I've redone chapter 2 so if I were you, I'd go back and read it. And, I would've had this up DAYS ago, but the stupid site wouldn't let me upload anything!!!! GRR!! ok, sorry. And yes, I KNOW that this is a short chapter, but it's important, cuz it gives you a look into what happened between the party and Zara's departure. I **_**would**_** have chapter 3 reposted, complete with the funeral scene, but I have the funeral scene **_**written**_** down and **

**Disclaimer: sadly, I don't own this movie. TxT stop reminding me. You're making me sad :(**

Alana

It's been a week.

Only 7 days, and my whole world has dissolved.

This time last week, Zara and I were partying and having the time of our lives. It was almost as good as our sweet sixteen party in NYC. –sigh- Now out lives will never be normal again.

One week ago tonight, or maybe early tomorrow morning, Zara went home with Tom and found her parents dead. According to the police report, Tom was in on the crime and tried to kill Zara, who ran into the woods to try and escape. Unfortunately, he apparently caught up with her, and she ended up killing him in self defense.

Nothing was the same after that.

At the funeral, Zara didn't say anything, but I saw her crying the entire time. Afterwards, everyone else left but us. I would've stayed, but my dad made me go, saying that Zara needed some "alone time" after what had happened. Pffft. Okay, so maybe a _little_ alone time, but I wanted to help her get through this! That's what friends are for, right? Right.

But here's the freaky part.

Just when we had started to drive away, I looked back over my shoulder and saw Zara on her knees in the dirt over her parent's grave, hugging the tombstone. A bit strange, but understandable. But then, just for a second, there was this guy standing behind her. He had on a black coat or a cape or something that covered everything but his head. He head really dark black hair that was up in a ponytail, and he had this _really,_ like, _unbelievably_ pale skin, like he never went out in the sun or something.

I was gaping at him through the window, and he turned to look at me, almost as if he knew I was looking. I must've blacked out for a second there, because all I remember is two piercing blue eyes, and then he was gone.

When Zara finally came back, she was soaking wet, but in a better mood. When I asked her why, she merely said that she had accepted on of her mother's Transylvanian proverbs to heart. Seeing how Mrs. McKean was _always_ blabbing out proverbs from her family's home country, this didn't surprise me. "So…what is it?" I had asked. Zara looked up at me from where she sat on the couch and smiled sadly.

All of the sudden, I was shocked at how changed she was.

Zara had been too distraught to straighten her hair the past few days, so it fell in loose curls halfway down her back. There were dark circles under my best friend's eyes, and the stitches on her face as well as all of the bruises and the bandage on her arm made her suddenly seem like an older stranger.

"'Always look on the bright side of death.'"

"Huh?"

"That was the proverb. 'Always look on the bright side of death'."

"…Which means…what?" Zara gave a short, barking laugh. That was another thing that had changed. Ever since _that _night, her laugh had changed, and now it sounded a bit more like a dog's bark than her normal laugh.

"It means that even though my mom and dad are gone, I'll see them again." I gulped, a sick feeling enveloped my stomach and made my knees tremble.

"You- you mean…when you d-die?" Zara grinned up at me. _I really hope that's my overactive imagination again, cuz there is no was that she actually has –gulp- …fangs_

"Hey, Ala, you ok?" I must've spaced out there, because now Zara was standing up too. "I was just kidding about that dieing thing. I'm not actually gonna kill myself-oof!" The "oof!" was caused by me darting in and giving her a quick, strong hug.

"Thanks, Zar. I don't want you killing yourself. You're my best friend and life would suck without you." From the floor, Zara looked up at me, the teal eyes that I've envied more that once beginning to tear up.

"You-you mean it?" I smiled down at her as I offered her my hand.

"Of course-" Now Zara was hugging me, crying into my shoulder. **(A/N: ok, before someone takes this the wrong way, they are NOT lesbians. They are very good friends, and Zara hasn't **_**really **_**cried for a while, ok? Ok.) **Through all the tears, I barely heard her whisper in a choked sob,

"T-thank you…" I was about to say something, when she continued, "…for caring…"

I pulled her back and looked at her from an arm's length. "How could I _not_ care? We've been best friends –bff- since _kindergarten._" I gave her another comforting hug. "How could I not care?" For some strange reason, this just made Zara cry even harder, and she pulled out of my grasp, turning to curl into a ball with her back to me as she whispered,

"Because of what I've become."

Those were the mysterious words still echoing in my head when I boarded the plane for London 2 hours ago.

Zara had IM-ed me a few days ago with an invite to her uncle's annual Halloween party, as well as just coming to visit. Seeing this as an opportunity to cheer her up, see her new home and check out her supposedly super-hot uncle, I took it.

So now, I'm on a plane to London, where I'll get on my connecting flight to Romania, and then I'll be subjected to a 5 hour car ride to the village Zara lives in now.

I'm psyched about seeing her again, but defiantly _not_ about that car ride.

Look out Romania, here comes Alana.

**A/N: Ok, short chapter, I know, but the next one should be pretty long, so that's make up for this 2 page little thing. **

**Update: 7-31-07**


	15. I Hate My Damn Alarm Clock

**A/N: Yes, I know the last chapter (not counting the poll) was freakishly short. DON'T KILL ME!!!! –cowers in corner- **

**Dracula: …you're pathetic**

**dl: Meanie. –sticks out tongue at Dracula- be quiet you, or I turn this into a crack pairing. **

**Dracula: and that would be…what?**

**dl: -cackles evilly while dramatic music plays and lightening flashes behind her in the suddenly pitch black sky- **

**Dracula: well **_**that **_**can't be good…**

**dl: say the disclaimer before this become a cp. **

**Dracula: -sighs- what**_**ever**_

**dl: 0.o; …please do **_**not**_** say **_**that**_** like **_**that **_**EVER again!!!**

**Dracula: -evil grin- **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the movie …damn it!!! TxT I also do not own the song ****I Hate Everything About You (Why Do I Love You?)**** that belongs to Three Days Grace, as much as I love it and the way it fits in with this story **

I Hate My Damn Alarm Clock

Dracula was rather annoyed.

Why, you might ask?

Here's a hint: The cause of his annoyance was about 5 feet, 6…maybe 6 ½ inches tall, had long curly brown hair, teal eyes and had a rather annoying talent for playing the drums louder than would _ever _be necessary.

But, unlike the countless times that she'd been the cause of his annoyance before, _this _time, Zara Valerious wasn't actually (currently) doing anything.

In fact, she was asleep.

The vampire lord was standing on the floor (for once) of the room he had given the half-breed, staring down at where she was curled up in a ball against the door, right where she'd been six hours ago, fast asleep.

But the fact still remained that he _owed _her for not killing him when she had the chance. And damn if that didn't tick him off. He debated nudging her with his boot to wake her up, but a recent memory of hate and rage-filled golden eyes burned in his brain. Zara's werewolf side had made it pretty clear that it didn't like him, and he reallyhad _no_ interest what-so-ever in fighting right now.

So, with a barely audible sigh, he gently, very _very_gently, picked up the sleeping teen and laid her down on the bed. Then he stepped back and blinked, electric blue eyes seeing perfectly in the near-pitch black. A wide smirk spread across his face, the white teeth and glowing eyes illuminating the dark. _I probably shouldn't…_ He leaned in again, and gently brushed his lips across Zara's making her shift in her sleep, eyes searching under their lids for something they wouldn't see. _…but when have I ever given a damn? _And with that, he disappeared, melting back into the darkness.

o0O0o

Zara woke up at about 4 in the afternoon from a _very _confusing dream full of blue eyes and shadows, to her alarm clock blaring right next to her head. With a groan, eyes stubbornly clenched shut, she blindly felt around for the damn thing, but her hand met nothing but air.

Then the lyrics finally sank in.

**I hate everything about you  
Why do I love you  
I hate everything about you  
Why do I love you**

Zara's eyes snapped open. 3 Days Grace had picked a _very_ bad day to have this particular song played on this particular radio station.

She stared at the clock, her mouth open in horror as the song played, and a part of her brain threw up pictures of Dracula the entire time.

**Only when I stop to think  
About you, I know  
Only when you stop to think  
About me, do you know**

Zara lunged for the damn thing, only to fall off of the bed she didn't know she was on. Ignoring the faint sound of someone snickering, she rolled to her feet and lunged again.

She slammed the 'Sleep' button, only for the song to keep on playing. She whacked it a few more times (you know, just for good measure) only to find out that the goddamned thing_ would not shut up_.

With a shriek, she _pulled _her alarm clock out of the wall and threw it to the ground, and then kicked it across the room.

It sputtered, throwing off sparks and garbled lyrics for a few moments before giving out and dieing. She stood there, still in her clothes from the previous day, her hair (complete with bed head) falling like a messy, curly curtain around her face as she stood there, fists clenched and panting slightly as she forced all thought of _him_ from her head.

"Having a bad evening, are we?"

Dammit.

Zara clenched her hands so hard that her fingernails almost drew blood. She was tired, hungry and was _not_ in the mood to deal with _him_. "Fuck off." She growled, storming out of the room and leaving a very surprised vampire behind. He knew that Zara cursed, but in her week at his castle, Dracula had never heard her use the word "fuck", and he had a feeling that it was something she only used when she was ticked off. And apparently, she was _also _not in the mood to deal with him right now.

He shrugged and followed her.

After all, where was the fun in stepping back and letting her cool down?

o0O0o

_Why am I so hungry? _She had never been this hungry in her life. It was as if every part of her being was craving…something. She didn't know what yet, but she wanted it, and if she didn't get it, she felt like she would die.

Zara threw open the refrigerator (which had "magically" become stocked with food on her second day. When she'd asked why, all of the servants had just shifted their eyes from side to side, before quickly making an excuse to be elsewhere) and frowned at the food it held. She slammed it shut and stalked across the 5-star kitchen to look for something that was actually _appetizing_.

"I know what you're looking for, and you won't find it in here." Zara whirled around, about to start shouting, only to stop, her gaze immediately drawn to the glass Dracula held in his hand. "You want _this_, don't you?" Zara nodded mutely, her mouth beginning to water. In the back of her mind, her werewolf persona tried to tell her something, but another wave of hunger washed out whatever it was going to say.

Keeping eye contact with her the entire time, Dracula raised the glass to his lips and took a long sip, drinking as slow as he could. When he'd drained the glass, he gave a sigh of contentment and licked his lips to get any excess drops.

Zara let out a whimper at seeing that all of that wonderful-looking liquid was gone. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want some?" Through the hunger, Zara realized that he was making fun of her and treated him to her best death glare.

Dracula brushed off the glare as if it were nothing, noticing with interest how the irises of his "guest's" eyes were a glowing purple. _Interesting…it seems her color is purple. _

Ah yes, her "color". After being bitten, all of his previous brides had developed one. Marishka had been yellow, Aleera had been red and Veronica had been a pale green, while Dracula's eyes turned blue when he was feeding or exhibiting some other vampiric power. It seemed as though Zara, in the grip of blood-lust as she was now, had finally developed her own color: purple.

Now, a few centuries prior to this whole event, Dracula had stumbled upon, quite by chance; a series of documents written by several "scientists" who believed that certain colors represented certain things. Now, if you went by those documents, then Marishka's yellow was the color the eye always saw first, doubtless the reason that she'd chosen it. And it worked, but only served to give him splitting headaches and just made him annoyed upon seeing that shade of yellow.

Aleera's red was supposed to make the heart beat faster; make anyone who saw it hungry and passionate, but seeing how Dracula's heart didn't beat at all, that plan sorta died on its feet. And, after 400 or so years, the passion thing had gotten old, _fast._

Verona was the only one whose color still affected him throughout the entire time he'd known her. Green was a calming color; it was supposed to make you feel refreshed and calm. It was probably safe to say that she'd been his favorite of the three-

Zara stared at Dracula with a confused look on her face. What was he _doing? _She'd been glaring at him, but he'd just brushed it off and gone on to staring absentmindedly into space.

She waved a hand in front of his face, but he didn't even blink. _Um…ok then…_ Zara turned to go find some of that good-looking stuff that Dracula had been drinking, only for something to gently grab her wrist and pull her backwards.

Zara (of course) tripped over the rug on the floor and fell back towards Dracula, who was (of course) the one who had grabbed her, only to be caught by two muscular arms covered in black.

"…let go." Zara was currently at a 45 degree angle, with Dracula's arms under hers and her head almost touching his chest. He smirked down at her.

"Not if you want to drink some of that stuff."

"…what does that have to do with you holding me?" He continued to smirk down at her.

"If I let go, you'd fall."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"Why do I have to?" Zara scowled upside-down at him.

"Let _go, _you_-_"

"As I said, not if you want to eat."

Zara shut her mouth and glared.

"That was fast."

"I'm _hungry_, dammit, and there's nothing good to eat." As a random fact, Dracula noted that Zara's use of curse words increased when she was pissed off/hungry/tired.

"Now, if you'll just wait here," Dracula suddenly disappeared, and Zara, completely unprepared for her support to vanish, fell to the floor with a bang and much cursing. "I'll go get you some '_appetizing_' food."

Zara pulled herself up on the counter, rubbing the newly-formed knot on her head and growling out curses at the vampire, but (for once) obeyed him and didn't move. So she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"DRACULA!!"

"What?" Zara jumped about a foot in the air when he asked that right next to her ear. As soon as she touched down, she whipped around to give him a piece of her mind, only to stop and stare at the toddler he was holding out in front of him.

The child was half asleep and looked like he was about to cry from fear and from being woken up in the middle of his nap. Zara blinked at him a few times before she realized what Dracula meant by holding up the child to her after he had gone to get her food.

o0O0o

He had expected many things from Zara. Things such as jumping across the room, away from him, and screaming about how she wouldn't kill the child. Most of the scenarios he'd envisioned consisted of her doing everything _but _grabbing said child.

Which was, of course, exactly what she had done.

Zara snatched the poor 4-year-old right out of the vampire's hands and cradled him protectively, glaring at the vampire over his head. Sensing that this person was safer than the person who'd been holding him before, the toddler immediately went to sleep in her arms.

"Goddamnit, Dracula! I am _not _killing this child!!" She hissed in a heated whisper at him. "You said you were hungry. And fresh blood is better than aged." Zara just gaped at him. He didn't care. He _honestly _didn't care about this child's life! She was so shocked and angry at this that she couldn't find a thing to say and just glared at him as the brunette child snuggled into her shoulder.

"You can't tell me that you're not hungry." Just to prove his point, Zara's stomach chose that moment to give out a loud grumble, causing the toddler to shift in his sleep and her cheeks to darken in rage and embarrassment. "Can't you _hear _the fresh, delicious blood pounding through his veins?" Goddamnit, she could now. "Can't you taste it, running warm and delicious down your throat?" Now that she thought about it, her throat really _was _pretty dry. Dracula leaned in for the literal kill. "Aren't you…_hungry?_"

Zara gaped at him, a slight blush spreading across her cheeks. Slowly, she turned to look down at the child, hunger making her see red. She had begun to lean down towards the toddler's throat when a sudden rush of adrenaline overpowered the hunger, clearing her vision of the red that had misted it over.

_What am I __**doing?**_

Her body's desire to feed was replaced by an urge to protect the child and she turned and ran.

o0O0o

Hello. My name is Ilona Jolan and I hate Zara Valerious.

Sure, she's the supposed "savior" of our village, but we were expecting someone like the legendary Anna Valerious, not this pathetic American, who had probably never picked up a weapon or killed a monster in her equally pathetic existence! Not to mention that she was _living _with Dracula!

I sneered as I stalked up the hill towards Castle Frankenstein, my hands white-knuckled as I gripped the wooden stake. And now, because of that _girl_, my father was dead and my poor little brother, Elek, was stolen. Mother was killed several years ago by that damned vampire.

Then, this morning, I found Father dead on our doorstep, his throat torn apart. We had buried him in accordance to our laws regarding those killed by vampires. My older brother Ethan and I, as well as little 4-year-old Elek, said our final goodbyes as his spirit departed, and then returned to our small home.

A few hours later, Elek disappeared. Ethan said that he saw a mist in our little brother's room that it gathered around the toddler and carried him away. We roused the others and we stormed the castle.

But I came for a second reason.

I am going to kill Zara Valerious.

o0O0o

Zara ran through the twisting black halls of Castle Frankenstein, clutching the child to her chest as her eyes searched for the front door.

"Yes!" She ran into the front hall and slid to a stop on the cold stone floor. Shifting the toddler to her left hip, she dug her nails into the door and _pulled_. The door burst open and she ran through, only to freeze at the sight of a rather large, angry mob of villagers with torches and pitchforks.

At the sight of a teenager with a bed-head and a child in her arms, the angry mob stopped too.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Umm…whose kid is this?" Zara asked, nodding towards the sleeping child with her head.

"It's the Jolan's!" Someone yelled from the back of the crowd, and Zara stepped forwards, shifting the child so that she was holding him out towards the crowd.

When no one moved forwards to take him, Zara started to get nervous. "Umm…could you please hurry up and take him? I can't go any farther-" To prove that point, the necklace began to pull her backwards towards the castle doors. "No!" She screamed, thrusting the child out as far as the force field allowed. "Please! Take him back before _he _comes!"

An overloud, dramatic sigh came from behind her and the Valerious noticeably stiffened. "Please." She mouthed at the villagers. "Why Zara, it almost sounds as if you don't want me around." _He _drawled from where he lounged against the open doorway.

Zara dug her heels into the dirt and took a few laborious steps towards the frozen mob. "You think I don't want you around? Why, what_ever _gave you _that _idea, Count?"

She battled forwards another few steps, and this time, someone ran out of the crowd, grabbed the child and hastily retreated back into the mob. Zara nodded in thanks and gasped as she moved her other leg forwards, feeling as though she was moving through water.

That's about when the first sparks came from her necklace. The electricity danced around her neck, slightly stinging where it touched her bare flesh. _'I wouldn't do that if I were you…' _Dracula's voice sounded in her head, but Zara ignored him as she picked up her other foot and was moving it forwards when she fell to her knees, screaming in pain as white electricity sprouted from the necklace and spun around her neck and down her right arm.

After a few moments, the electricity disappeared, leaving a numb feeling followed up by intense pins and needles. Dracula took a few steps and looked down at her with an "I-told-you-so" look on his face.

Zara aimed a clumsy kick at his leg and missed completely. "Get away from me." She muttered half heartedly as she struggled to her feet using the door as a support. An annoying retort was on his lips when, out of the corner of his eye, Dracula saw one of the villagers, a pimply teenaged boy, pull out a gun and aim it at Zara.

The click it made as the next bullet fell into the barrel was ridiculously loud in the silence that had descended onto the scene. Zara, still leaning on the ornate door for support, froze, her breath catching in her throat.

It was a bit disappointing really.

Her life didn't flash before her eyes, there wasn't an "OMG, I FORGOT TO DO…" there was just…

_I'm going to die. _

The thought was echoing through her head and adrenaline pumped through her terror-frozen veins and, so slow motion that it looked like a matrix scene, the gun went off, the deadly silver bullet speeding straight towards her head.

_I'm going to die. _

**A/N: Yes I am evil, thank you for noticing. But you guys DESERVE IT!!! The whole point of a survey is to find out WHAT PEOPLE THINK!!! And that's kind of hard if only ONE PERSON reviews!!!**

**Gem of the Stars****: thank you very much for being the ONLY ONE to review! Would you mind dropping in another review or a PM explaining you idea? Thanks!**

**gothlyssa****: even though you didn't participate in the poll (TxT) or review last chapter (TxT X10000000) have you decided what you would like to happen? It doesn't have to fit into the story line, it can just be an Omake or something like that. **

**(A/N: In Hungarian, Ilona means "beautiful" and Jolan means "violent blossom" Elek means "manly" or something like that.)**

**REVIEW!!! **

**Update: 7-31-07**


	16. My Savior

**A/N: SORRY SORRY SORRY!!! GOMEN NASAI!!! I AM SOOOO SORRY!!!! **

**I've been away for a month, but right after I finished chapter 15, I had a bit of writer's block. **

**TTnTT but…I got up the chapter! Yay! And read the note at the bottom please. It's kind of important. **

My Savior 

_**RECAP**_

_The click the gun made as the next bullet fell into its barrel was ridiculously loud in the silence that had descended onto the scene. _

_The thought was echoing through her head and adrenaline was pumping through her terror-frozen veins and, so slow that it looked like something out of the matrix, the gun went off, the deadly silver bullet speeding straight towards her head. _

'_I'm going to die.' _

_**END RECAP**_

It was horrible.

She could see her death flying towards her, but she couldn't move. Terror had locked her limbs in place and she watched, helpless, as the bullet sped towards her.

A foreign smell entered her nose as it came closer, a stinging sensation that made her skin crawl in distaste. Instinctively, she realized that it was silver, and that it would _definitely _kill her.

A yard.

She could hear her blood pounding in her ears.

A foot.

Images of her family flashed before her eyes and she relaxed, somewhat. _I'll see them again…soon…_

3 inches-

Something large and black filled her vision. Zara threw up her arms, and immediately wondered why she was stupid enough to raise her arms when someone stepped in front of her but not for when a bullet was speeding at her face.

The black thing was suddenly stumbling backwards, bent over as if it had been punched in its stomach. If it had a stomach, that is.

Anyways, as it stumbled back Zara identified the black thing as Dracula. Dracula with a bleeding hole in his stomach. The smell of his blood filled the room, and Zara found her mouth watering again.

_NO!! _

It took a few moments, but she managed to pull herself out of the bloodlust just in time to hear crashing footsteps. She turned and saw one of the villagers, a stringy-haired girl with the bloodshot, puffy eyes of someone who'd been crying recently run out from a pillar behind them, one arm raised high, a familiar wooden stake drenched in werewolf venom clutched in that hand.

"_DEATH TO THE DEMON!!! DEATH TO DRACULA!!!" _She screamed this in Romanian but Zara understood. She understood the rage and hate on the other girl's face just as she understood that she could not let him die by another's hand.

Or at least that's what she told herself.

And with that final thought she threw herself to her feet, between Dracula and the stake, just in time for it to crack through her collar bone and pierce downwards through her lungs, narrowly missing her heart, before emerging from the other side with a loud, sickening squelch and a spray of blood.

Zara felt a warm trail of liquid drip from the corner of her mouth as she fell slowly to her knees with a loud thump that echoed through the now silent hall.

She couldn't breathe, her sight was failing and a loud roaring filled her ears as she began to slump forwards towards the floor. She had almost hit the bloodstained stone when someone grabbed her and gently lifted her to rest against them in a bridal position. Her head lolled back and she gazed up at Dracula with clouded and unfocused teal eyes for several heartbeats before one shaking hand struggled upright and curled around the lapel of his jacket with difficulty.

And with this final act of trust, her eyes rolled back into her head and she slipped into unconsciousness.

o0O0o

**4 Hours Later**

After the villagers had fled at the sight of their "savoir" being staked by one of their own, and then that one being mercilessly killed by Dracula, the vampire had immediately flown to Zara's room, laid her down on the bed and set to work removing the stake and cleaning the wound.

With no thought to his own still-bleeding injury, the vampire instead chose to pull up a chair next to her bed and think.

This whole thing had started out so simple; so uncomplicated. But, apparently, nothing with Zara involved could stay uncomplicated for long. His original plan had been simply to seduce the last Valerious, turn her into a bride and keep her as an entertainment until he bored of her. And when he had, he would have killed her, sending her to her family in eternal shame.

And that would have been the end of it. The Valerious family would be forever trapped in Limbo and its last member would be an outcast among outcasts; twice cursed and defiled by a vampire and werewolf. Simple as that.

At first, everything had gone according to plan. There had been one left, and she'd been bitten by a werewolf. Then he had drunk her blood for the first time and given her a drop of his own to run through her veins, biding her to him.

She had come to live with him and had found out about the past of him and her family as she inevitably was going to. She had begun to fight back, which was not only pointless but amusing to him as well.

He had won his second bite and had begun to turn her to his side. Everything had still been going according to plan. But then…but then Zara had begun to ... God, this was embarising to admit...unintentionally worm her way into his dead heart. The way she would sing slightly off-key to any song she knew (if she thought he wasn't listening,) how she was sometimes child-like in her naivety, how unintentionally cute she was when she tripped on something.

And how, even though she successfully resisted almost every seducing move he made on her, even though her werewolf persona seemed determined to hate him, and even after all he'd done to her and her family, she couldn't find it in herself to kill him and had even gone as far to save his life. And then she had the nerve to trust him, _him _of all people!! To spare her life as she lay in his arms, almost dead!! He didn't know whether to applaud her bravery or sigh at her stupidity. And yet, here she lay, still alive and whole ...except for that gaping hole in her chest.

All this had combined to make him unsure if he could carry through with his original plan.

But he had to. Even if she didn't want to, Zara would continue trying to kill him. She felt as if she owed that to her family. And all he wanted was to be left alone. The rest of the world had forgotten about him, except for the villagers who were too afraid of appearing mad to tell any outsiders, and Gabriel who would doubtlessly have his memories destroyed by the idiotic Order he worked for or God himself very soon.

All he wanted was peace, and Zara Valerious was the only thing standing in his way.

So why hadn't he let her die? Why had he stepped between the silver bullet and her? Why had he shielded her with himself? Dracula tried to convince himself that it was only because he wanted to be the one to kill her, and only after he had completely disgraced her.

But he couldn't convince himself. He knew that that wasn't true. So he tried again. He tried telling himself that it was only because drinking her blood on a regular basis would make him truly invincible. That was easier to believe, but some part of him still didn't accept it. He ignored that part, thrust it away into a corner of his mind and submerged himself in the lie.

She was just here to keep him invincible and to provide him amusement. Nothing more.

He chanted that in his head, like a manta of some sort. If he said it enough and with enough conviction, it would become the truth.

He gave up after five minutes.

What was it about Zara Valerious?

o0O0o

When Zara woke up her first thought was

_Am I in Heaven? _

This was shortly followed by a resounding,

_No, stupid. Heaven is white. What we're looking at is the color commonly known as purple. _

The wolf-like version of her own voice echoing in her head made Zara flinch and then groan and slap both her hands to her face.

"I hate my life and the stupid voice in my-OUCH!!!" She had momentarily forgotten about her injury, and when she'd slapped herself she'd only aggravated the wound and fell back to the bed, writhing in pain.

When the fit passed, she relaxed, her back touching the bed again as she gasped for air as she clumsily rubbed her head against the pillow to wipe away some of the sweat that now completely covered her body. Then she lay there, panting to regain the air she'd lost.

When she had caught her breath, Zara just lay still and stared at the high canopy of her bed, slowly drifting back to sleep until a grunt of pain that wasn't hers drew her eyes the cold figure lying right next to her.

Slowly, as not to aggravate her wound again, Zara turned her head to the left only to be greeted by the sight of an almost unconscious Dracula bleeding all over her bed.

"D-Dracula?" With a low groan, his eyes fluttered open and he grinned weakly.

"H-hello, my dear."

"Even when you're dieing, you still have the energy to be annoying?" He laughed, the weak and rasping sound ending in a cough that sprayed black blood all over the bed.

"What can I say? It's a gift." Zara's hand went to where her own injury was aching and safely bandaged under perfectly wrapped, pristine white bandages.

"You…you took the time to care for my wound, but you never thought to take care of yourself?! Stupid!!" She rolled over as carefully as she could and poked him in the arm. "Let me help." His barely open eyes widened in confusion.

"What?"

"I said, let me help. Before I think about what I'm doing, please." With a weak grin he tried to remove his jacket, only to give a surprised gasp of pain and collapse back onto the bed. "Shit!!" Zara pulled herself onto her knees and peeled back the sides of his jacket and began to unbutton the plain black shirt he wore underneath.

"Hn…I didn't know you-" more blood flew as he coughed. "I didn't know that you were so desperate…to get my shirt off…" Zara glared at him but couldn't fight the ferocious blush that had risen to her face.

"Sh-shut up before I punch you."

"Hit an injured man? You wouldn't." Zara unhooked the last button and hit him lightly right next to the inflamed wound, making him jerk and hack blood.

"Try me. I don't _have_ to help you, you know!" But it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than him. "…ouch…" She simply said as she stared down at the bullet hole and the burned skin radiating away from it. The skin for about an inch or two in every direction was puffy and inflamed and covered in blood from the wound. It was quite nasty.

As she rolled back over to grab the bandages and other sophisticated-looking medical stuff from where it still lay on the bed, Zara thought of something.

"I thought my blood made you invincible? And if werewolf venom is the only thing that can kill you, why is a silver bullet such a big deal?"

"I'm guessing that your blood had made me a bit more sensitive to-" he paused to cough again "…made me more sensitive to silver, as you _are _a lycanthrope."

"_No_, really? I had no idea. And here I was thinking that I just had super-fast growing hair all over my body when I'm in the moonlight, and that the reason I'm having fits of super-strength was because you were slipping me steroids." Dracula snorted, only to grimace from the pain his laughter brought.

"I swear you're trying to kill me through laughter." Zara grimaced too as she gently stuck the pair of tweezers that had been with the medical stuff into the bullet hole to extract the bullet.

"One, I don't think that's possible. Two, hold still!! I can't get the bullet out if you're squirming like that,"

"It _hurts!_" He hissed.

"Baby. And Three, I thought that vampires couldn't feel pain." To prove this point, she ripped the bullet out of his stomach with more force then was necessary, causing him to jerk spastically, and then snarl at her.

"That was unnecessary!"

"So was shocking me earlier." With a look of disgust at the bullet, she threw it into the trashcan at the foot of the bed and set about wrapping bandages about his stomach. "There. Done." And she tied off the white fabric with a neat know and sat back, surveying her work with a satisfied and proud look.

Dracula looked down at the bandage wrapped firmly around his chest with an odd look on his face.

"…Thank you." It was so quiet that Zara almost didn't catch it.

"You're welcome!" She chirped, beaming down at him. "How could I not after you did the same for me?"

"Most people with your background wouldn't." A shadow crossed her face.

"Well…I'm not most people, now am I?"

"Not in the slightest." She gave him another sunny smile which he hesitantly returned with a less sunny one of his own.

Then a female voice called out,

"Zara? You here?"

The werewolf's head shot up, shock and happiness on her face. With one last grin at Dracula, she jumped off the bed, pulled on a new shirt and bounded out into the hallway with a jubilant cry of,

"ALA!!"

**A/N: And that's where I'm stopping it. Again, I am SO sorry that it took so long, but hopefully my next update should be soon. **

**And if I were you, not only would I review, but I'd also go back and reread everything. Except for chapter 3 which is still being stubborn, everything had been rewritten. **

**I may go back later and change Zara's reaction to learning that Alana is arriving, but if I do, I'll tell you. Sorry again!! **


	17. Welcome to Transylvania

**A/N: Ok, so in my Latin class (and yes, I take Latin) a few weeks ago, we were picking Latin names and our teacher gave us each a list of names. So I'm still half asleep and looking at this chart, and all of a sudden I start coughing and choking. **

**Why, you might ask? Because there, in pretty Times New Roman, size 12, was the name "Valerious." I KID YOU NOT. But then someone else picked it, so I was sad. :( **

Welcome to Transylvania

_**RECAP**_

"_Zara? You here?"_

_The werewolf's head shot up, shock and happiness on her face. With one last grin at Dracula, she jumped off the bed and bounded out into the hallway with a jubilant cry of, _

"_ALA!!" _

_**END RECAP**_

Zara was halfway to the entrance hall before a sudden thought brought her skidding to a stop.

_Ala's in danger. I know she's beautiful, she knows she's beautiful… But Chocula doesn't. He might-he might bite her!!! _She turned and ran back towards her room, grabbing onto the doorframe to stop from sliding past it.

"YoubetternotbiteAlaorI'llneverforgiveyouandprobablykillyou." She said in one long breath.

Dracula, who was now pulling his jacket back on over his bandages and forgoing his shirt in case it reopened the wound, turned to look at her over his shoulder with a confused expression on his face.

"…what?" She repeated it slower. He sighed and pushed a piece of stray hair behind his ear.

"Don't worry. I'm not hungry."

"I didn't mean like that!! …but on second thought, don't do that either. What I meant was don't you even _think _about turning her into one of your brides." He smirked.

"Because you want me all to yourself?" She began to nod, but then froze, red rapidly spreading over her face. "I knew it."

"Wait! What? NO!!!" She was waving her hands around frantically in denial, babbling nonsense about how that wasn't true, and looking everywhere but him until cool fingers gently fastened around her chin. They gently tilted her face up to his, making her panicked teal eyes look into his smug blue ones, which were suddenly _much _to close.

"You know it's true." His cold breath ghosted across the shell of her ear, making her shiver and her eyes glaze over a bit. A distant voice called her name and Zara came to, shaking her head slightly as she tried to clear away the pleasant haze in her mind.

"Stop that." She said crossly, but didn't move away. Vlad (of course) took this as a sign to continue, completely ignoring her recent statement as he smirked down at her again, noticing in the back of his mind that her torso was completely bare save for the bandages wrapped around it like a makeshift sports bra.

With a groan of frustration, he rolled his eyes skyward as he grabbed his shirt and began to hand it to Zara, as it would _not _be a good thing if her friend caught them here, both being semi-shirtless. Nope. Not good.

"What are you doing?" Vlad froze, his hand, shirt dangling from it with deceptive innocence, freezing as he glared at Zara and the smile she was at least trying to hide as she snickered at the shirt.

"What does it look like?" He hoped to God… or the Devil…or whatever… that vampires couldn't blush, but covered up any possible blushage by giving the teal eyed girl an icy glare that had no effect.

She grinned up at him, a few more snickers escaping. "It looks like you're about to give me your shirt. Very sweet of someone who's been killing off my family." The words were serious, but the teasing hint in her eyes said that she was merely mocking him.

"Do you want it or not?" He snarled, too worked up (he refused to say embarrassed) to brush away the many stray chunks of hair obscuring his vision as he glared down at the infuriating female, his fist tightening in his shirt.

An almost offended look came over her face and she grabbed the silk shirt, clutching it possessively to her chest. "No! I want it!" She began to put it on, grinning wickedly. "But it's still very _nice _of you to do this." She continued to tease him as she pulled on the overlarge shirt and began to button it up. It was so much longer in the arms that she actually had to stop and push them up to her elbows before she could continue.

Vlad, watching her button up the shirt, couldn't help but smirk at how it clearly marked her as his. The silken garment was huge on her, but she still somehow managed to look too tempting for her own good, which was _not _good, considering the number of male werewolves in the castle at that moment. Male werewolves who tended to get a bit…frisky around full moon.

Speaking of the devil, one such wolf appeared at the door now, barely even trying to hide how his tinted-gold eyes lingered for far too long on the lone female in the room.

"Miss, your friend is getting quite instant." He purred, completely ignoring the vampire. Zara, not noticing how Dracula bristled at both being ignored and how the werewolf was looking at her (she missed that too) looked up from the last button and grinned.

"Mm'kay. Could you please tell her that I'll be there in a second?" The other werewolf gave her a grin that was similar to a diabetic seeing a huge ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry on top.

"Why, _yes, _yes I can-" he purred, only to choke and gag as an invisible hand closed around his throat.

"If you are _quite _done," Vlad drawled with a slightly threatening tone coloring his accented voice as he rested one forearm on the bedpost above Zara's head so that his considerably larger frame towered over hers, the very possessive stance practically screaming 'BACK. OFF. NOW.'

"Yes…yessir." And the gasping werewolf turned tail and fled, Dracula smirking at his retreating back and Zara looking at that same back in confusion and amusement, musing to herself that she hadn't realized just how jealous and possessive Dracula could get.

The calling voice came closer, and this time Zara hollered back, "COMING, ALA!!!" before turning her face back up towards the vampire and flicking his nose to get his attention.

As he gaped at her in shock at what she'd just dared to do, the Valerious gave him a cheeky grin. "No biting, remember?" And then she was gone, running towards her friend's voice and leaving only an echo of her laughter behind.

Rubbing his nose as he stared down the hallway she had just disappeared down, the vampire allowed himself a small smirk before disappearing himself to ready for his newest guest's arrival.

o0O0o

The blonde American had been standing in the hall, alone except for an older blonde servant, who had been sneaking her amused glances since she'd arrived, and she'd been standing there for quite some time before she lost the short supply of patience she had and hollered her friend's name at the top of her lungs.

The servant had jumped and almost knocked over an expensive looking statue, cursing as she grabbed it and hauled it upright with a speed and strength she should not have been capable of.

But, thankfully for the 'lets-pretend-that-everything's-normal-and-we're-not-all-actually-creatures-from-Hollywodd-horror-movies' charade of the castle inhabitants (Zara now included,) Ala didn't notice, instead being occupied with shouting out her friend's name.

She had almost given up when there was an answering, overjoyed cry of "Ala!!" and something black and brown and very curly slammed into the small blonde. Ala staggered back, stunned at the speed at which her friend had appeared at, so it took her a moment to regain her wits and join in the happy screeching and jumping and hugging that was their reunion.

When they had calmed down, Alana grabbed her taller friend by the shoulders and cast a critical eye over her to see how the castle life was treating her. After a few minutes of scrutiny, she let out a huff of air, her hands dropping to her sides and her hazel eyes a bit miffed.

"You haven't changed at all." She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest while Zara blinked down at her shorter friend in confusion.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Alana's hands flopped to her sides and she almost stamped her foot as she whined up to her friend,

"I expected…I dunno, at least something more dramatic than the loss of your tan! I mean, really, this is _Transylvania, _for Christ's sake!" Zara blinked a few more times, and then a wide grin spread across her face and she began to chuckle.

"Good to see that _you _haven't changed either, Ala." And she slung one silk-clad arm around her shorter friend's shoulders and they began to walk towards the grand staircase that led deeper into the castle. "Now, how about a tour…?" Zara trailed off as she noticed the blonde werewolf – Maria, if she remembered correctly – motioning for her to stop from a side hallway, and to come over there. "One second," and she trotted over to the older werewolf.

"Master's at the top of the stairs." Maria smirked. "He's been _primping _ever since you left the room and now he's finally ready and wants to make a dramatic entrance." Zara grinned at the older werewolf's blatant lack of respect or fear towards Dracula.

"Did he tell you all this?"

"Nah. He just told me to tell you that he's coming down the stairs."

"And you somehow got all of that out of 'he's coming down the stairs?'" Maria gave her a lopsided grin.

"Well, yeah. After all the time I've been here, if I _couldn't _get all of that from the three words he graces us with daily, I'd be a pretty poor servant then, eh?"

"But…I thought that you didn't have a choice about serving." Maria chuckled, shaking her head so that her shaggy blonde hair flopped into her gold-flecked emerald eyes.

"No, no. Some of us actually _chose _to work for him." Zara blinked up at her, quite confused by the strange turn their conversation had taken. Maria had _chosen _to work for Dracula? She probably could have done anything with her life, and she chose servitude to the Prince of Darkness?

"But…why?" Another grin and a graceful shrug.

"Because it's more interesting. Probably the most interesting job I coulda gotten, considering that little itty-bitty hair growth problem I have every full moon." Zara chuckled and turned to go back over to Alana.

"Well, thanks for the heads up, Maria." And with a small wave, the princess crossed the hall to her friend.

"What was that about?"

"My uncle," Zara choked it out, trying to gag over the absurdity of the thought that her relationship to Dracula was as simple as niece-uncle, and partially wished that it _was _that simple. "Wants to make a good first impression. And by that, I mean that he wants to make a dramatic entrance." Almost as an afterthought, she added, "Oh, and try not to stare too much, okay?" Ala's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why would…I…stare…?" She trailed off, her hazel eyes widening and her mouth dropping open as she stared up at the top of the stairs. Zara could practically _feel _the smugness radiating off of the vampire and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and feeling a migraine coming on as she turned to face the stairs with resignation.

And sure enough, there at the top of the stairs stood Dracula, his hair and clothes immaculate to the point where you couldn't tell that just minutes ago he had been covered in his own, the villagers, and Zara's blood. And Alana was staring.

And practically drooling.

Zara reached over and closed her friend's jaw.

His face once more adorned with his favorite smirk, (his "hello-I'm-so-sexy-why-don't-you-worship-me-now?" smirk, as opposed to the one that Zara was now quite sick of, his "your-incomptence/failed-attempt-at-whatever-you're-trying-to-do-only-amuses-me" smirk. And that's only naming two.) Dracula glided down the staircase, one alabaster hand elegantly poised on the ebony railing.

"And you must be Miss Alana." He purred, his heavy accent breaking the equally heavy silence that hung in the hall as he bowed over Alana's hand and kissed it.

Zara dissolved into laughter. A glare from the vampire had her stuffing her fist in her mouth, but the occasional, lady-like (not) snort still escaped. But the look on Alana's face as he welcomed her to the castle and tried to make small talk (which didn't work, seeing how Ala seemed to have lost the ability to form coherent thoughts) had Zara almost falling over the banister she was trying to support herself on, laughing so hard that she thought she'd busted a lung.

Dinner wasn't much better. What with Ala's fork missing her mouth half the time, as she was still in shock at Dracula, and said vampire's ego swelling to enormous sizes on account of his new adoring fan, and the servants and Zara snickering the entire time.

By the time dinner was over and Dracula had retreated to his room and Zara had shown Alana to hers, it was late and Zara could see the jet lag's effect on her friend. But the blonde stayed awake and began to grill her for details.

**FOUR AND A HALF HOURS LATER**

"Alaaaaaaaaa…"

"Just one more question, Zara, I _promise_." Zara groaned again and thumped her head on the bedpost of her friend's golden and white bed.

"_One. More._" She wanted to _sleep_, dammit!!

"Mm'kay…" Ala tapped her chin thoughtfully, seeming not effected by the late (now early) hour and the different time zone, while Zara (who had been in this time zone for a week) was about to keel over with exhaustion.

Oh, how she loathed the blonde at that moment.

"Oh! I know!" Ala's excited squeal made Zara (who had almost fallen asleep) jerk and hit her hand on the bedpost she'd been leaning on. After a few moments of some rather spectacular cursing, she had calmed down enough to listen to the last question.

"What's going on between you and your uncle?" Zara choked on her own spit and started hacking, not knowing that the vampire who'd been eavesdropping from the bathroom that connected the two rooms was doing the same.

Once she could breathe again, she shakily asked, "Whu-What makes you ask that?" Her laughter and ditzyness of several seconds ago gone, Ala blinked solemnly at her panicked friend.

"It's the way you look at each other." Zara had another choking fit and Dracula felt as if the bottom of his stomach had dropped through the floor. Ignoring the brunette's sputtered protests, the blonde plowed right on ahead. "When he looks at you, it's like he's confused or conflicted about something. One second he'll be looking at you with affection, the next hate, and right after that confusion again, and anger, as if he doesn't know what to think about you." Zara was speechless, gaping at her friend while the blonde continued. "And you…it's the same thing. One second you're glaring at him like you want him to crawl into a corner and die, and the next you're practically sprouting hearts around your head." Their eyes met, shocked teal and confused hazel. "So what's going on between you?"

With two pairs of ears waiting for her response, Zara panicked and was about to blurt out something –she wasn't sure what- when a cool grip closed around her mind, shutting her mouth effectively.

'_Think before you speak, Zara. What you say next decides your friend's fate. If you tell her the truth, I will remain true to my promise and not harm her, but she might reject you and think you a monster.' _Ala wondered why tears had welled up in the corners of her friend's eyes. _'Or if she __**does **__accept you, you'll have put her life in danger. She will become a target to all who seek to harm you, or me through you. So think carefully, my dear…' _And with that, Dracula withdrew from her mind, leaving Zara more confused than before he had entered.

"…Well?" Ala's soft question brought Zara back to the present, and she looked at her hands for a moment, before raising her gaze to her friend's. She and Ala had been friends since before they could walk. They had supported each other through middle school and most of high school, their friendship surviving while other's crumbled. They had always been there for each other; had always been able to tell each other _anything_. But now, if Zara told...

Ala could _die. _

She didn't want her best friend's blood on her hands.

"It's…complicated…" She whispered, dropping her gaze to her hands again. "I guess you could say that there's bad blood between our sides of the family." She gave a dry, humorless chuckle. "A sort of modern-day Capulet and Montague type of thing." She fell quiet, not wanting to endanger her friend, but still happy that she hadn't lied. She'd just…omitted several key facts. But hey, what Ala didn't know wouldn't kill her, right?

Locking eyes again, Alana slowly nodded, hearing and understanding her friend's silent plea that she couldn't say anything more. So, to show her acceptance of this, she gave the brunette a sunny smile and a hug. Surprised but happy, Zara's arms came up around Alana's shoulders and she allowed a tear or two to snake down her cheeks.

"Thank you." She whispered as they pulled apart and she hopped off of the bed. Ala smiled back.

"Of course. Now leave! I'm tired." And with two parting smiles, Zara walked through the large bathroom and into her own room, ignoring the vampire lounging on the door frame.

In fact, she didn't even acknowledge his presence until she was sitting on her bed, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them. There was silence as they listened to Ala getting ready for bed in the next room, and neither made a move to speak until both could hear the deep, even breaths of sleep coming from the gold and white room.

"Will she be safe?" The Valerious's whispered question was only a sigh on the wind, but the vampire heard it none the less.

"From me, at least. I cannot guarantee that she will be left alone by hunters or other creatures, dark or light, but I assure that I will do my best to keep her from harm while she is with us." Teal eyes tore away from the black vines that adorned the royal purple blanket she sat on and fixed on the glowing azure ones across the room as she drew a surprised breath.

"You…you would…" A smirk that seemed a bit off, a bit too mournful to be normal on his face, curved Dracula's lips as he pushed off of the door frame and slowly drifted across the carpet towards the large bed on which Zara sat.

"Surprised that I _do _have a heart?" A surprised gleam entered her teal eyes, but she did not move as he was suddenly right in front of her, bent in a bow over the side of the side of the bed so that his alabaster face was a few inches above her own, one hand tucked, out of habit, behind his back. A cold hand softly caressed an icy trail on her cheek as she stared up at him, surprised and slightly fascinated by the new side of himself he was showing. "Truth be told, it surprises me as well." He murmured. "Not for hundreds of years have a felt this…_alive_." His eyes glowed electric blue in the dark room, and, unbeknownst to her, Zara's eyes glowed a dull purple in response to her sire's eyes. "I don't know what you've done to affect me like this, Zara Valerious, but I intend to find out." An emotion she couldn't name entered his eyes, but before she could do anything about it, he was gone.

She sat there for the longest time, teal-purple eyes gazing out into the darkness without seeing as she thought. Only when the almost-full moon peeked out from behind a storm cloud that was beginning to flicker ominously with lightning did she break from her trance and bound off of the bed and hurriedly yank the curtains closed. Relaxed at the absence of the moonlight, Zara crossed back over the room at a more languid pace, her eyelids heavy as she crawled underneath the thick silk sheets and blankets. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, dreading the dream –or was it a nightmare?- that she knew would soon follow.

What would her family have to say tonight?

**I know it's late and I'm so sorry!!! –weeps pitifully in corner as she dodges objects thrown by any readers she still has- but I've got the next 2-3 chapters planned out (I think that's why this one took so long. I really had no idea of what was going to happen. I was just kind of winging it.) and the next one, at least, should be finished sometime next week. **

**And for sticking with this story from the beginning, here's a little peek at what's going to happen in the next few chapters or so:**

Chapter 18:

_She glared coldly at the older version of herself, the one that she'd welcomed so warmly the night before. "Well I'm sorry if I wasn't raised to be a prejudiced, close-minded __**git **__like the rest of you lot." She hissed, feeling her anger –both at herself, them, and a certain vampire whose fault this whole scene was- coil within her. "So what if I'm doubly cursed? So what if I'm living under his roof? At lease I actually __**have **__a life!! At least my entire existence hasn't been consumed with the obsession that yours was!" Anna recoiled as if slapped. Anger distorted her beautiful features, twisting them almost beyond recognition. _

"_I don't know why we even __**bothered **__trying to save you." She hissed back, either not noticing or ignoring how much she was imitating her cousin at the moment, and then turned on her heel and disappeared into the crowd of ghosts, shouldering and pushing anyone that got in her way aside. _

_Zara watched her go, ignoring the blood dripping from the cuts she'd gouged in her palms with her nails, her eyes golden and her breath coming in short, angry pants. She turned on her own heel and stalked off in the other direction, back towards the lone corner of the white plane that was pitch black. As the shadows enveloped her once more, she let go and sobbed where she thought no one could see her. Two blue eyes watched from the deepest recesses of the darkness, keeping their captivating depths curiously, painfully blanked. _

Chapter 19:

"_Oh, aren't you just the most precious little things!!" Zara and Ala stared up at the, well, __**massive **__woman before them with identical expressions of horror, both thinking, "oh god, save me now."_

"_Oh, Lord Dracula, it's such an honor to be entrusted with your flesh and blood!!" And Zara was suddenly being crushed in an icy, heavily perfumed hug. She gasped for air, her eyes frantically seeking out Alana, and then locking with Dracula's, who seemed torn between laughter and relief that he wasn't the object of Lady Madeline's affection. _

"_Help." She gasped to him, pleading to be rescued. _

_Fortunately, Lady Marigold dropped Zara before she died of asphyxiation and turned to Ala, pinching the blonde's cheeks and exclaiming over her hair, not noticing the human's expression of horror. Then the massive vampire turned to Dracula, but he was gone. _

"_Coward." Zara muttered under her breath, knowing he would hear as the pink woman ushered (in other words, __**dragged**__) the two teenagers into her lair, already speculating about what color and style dresses would be "just perfect!" for each of them. _

Chapter 20:

_Several things happened at once. The clock struck midnight, the full moon came from behind a cloud and shone down into the room, and Ala raised a crystal glass of black liquid to her lips. _

"_NO!!" Zara screamed, gripping the railing so hard that the marble cracked, as Ala screamed, shuddered and dropped to the floor where she began to twitch convulsively. A vampire with auburn hair that flopped into his glowing emerald eyes stood over her friend, a victorious smirk on his face as he toed the shattered remains of the crystal tumbler that had held his blood. _

_Zara was about to leap over the railing –dress be damned- but a shudder even more violent than Ala's wracked her frame and a monstrous growl ripped from her throat. She wheeled away; tears in her eyes, fleeing from the room as she felt the effects of her first full moon twist her bones and muscles. _

_She made it into a courtyard and collapsed, her nails ripped into claws and she began to tear at her skin as her tortured scream twisted into a howl. _

_Electric blue eyes watched from the shadows, an unconscious blonde and a cowering brunette behind him, pain in his eyes as he watched the woman before him change and tear her way out of recognition and her skin. _


	18. Why Dead People Aren't Supposed to Talk

**A/N: Congratulations to ****Aviarianna O Lorien**** for being the 30****th**** reviewer!!! -throws confetti- and thank all of you who reviewed!!!  
**

Why the Dead Aren't Supposed to Talk

**RECAP**

"_Not for hundreds of years have a felt this…alive." His eyes glowed electric blue in the dark room, and, unbeknownst to her, Zara's eyes glowed a dull purple in response to her sire's eyes. "I don't know what you've done to affect me like this, Zara Valerious, but I intend to find out." An emotion she couldn't name entered his eyes, but before she could do anything about it, he was gone. _

* * *

Just as she had suspected, Zara woke to a pure, blinding white. She blinked several times, patiently waiting for her eyes to adjust to the light. She didn't bother hurrying or trying to figure out where she was. She already knew. She was in the same place her dreams had taken her every night so far.

She was here to meet her family.

And the sooner she woke up and left, the better. _Oh well…might as well get this over with…_

The werewolf pulled herself up and dragged her feet towards the clearing where they met every night. And to think that only two nights ago she'd ran as fast as she could towards them, desperate to see her parents again. She'd been unconscious last night, so she hadn't dreamt of them.

After an eternity of groaning and dragging her feet, Zara arrived in a small clearing filled with white ghosts. A few broke away from the crowd to drift towards her, and she could tell which one was Velkan from a distance. While almost all the other ghosts where pure, snow white, his soul was streaked with gold. The werewolf curse. _Will my soul look like that when I die? _She wondered vaguely, trying to distract herself from the impending disaster.

As the ghosts reached her, the one in front shaking with anger, Zara turned her back on them and crossed her arms childishly. "If all you're going to do is yell at me, then I'm not going to listen." Then she gasped and jumped as Anna flew right through her, the icy feeling wrapping in a cold chill around her bones.

"Well I _am _going to yell at you, you idiot, so shut up and listen!!"

"No!" Anna swore and tried to grab her, only for her ghostly hands to go right through Zara's throat. Then she screamed and reeled away, clutching her stained black hand to her chest. Zara blinked in surprise, and then looked down at her throat. Anna had phased right through the collar, so what…?

"Ah." She merely said. The bite marks. "Serves you right." She snapped at Anna, crossing her arms over her chest to hide her shakes. "If you're going to be violent, then I'm leaving." She motioned her head towards the black stain on the white world. Her door back to reality.

Anna glared at her coldly, but nodded stiffly and floated closer, staring down at her shorter relative. "Fine," She hissed, her brown eyes full of barely contained anger. "We'll talk."

"About what?"

"I think you know." Zara rolled her eyes and almost stomped her foot impatiently.

"If all you're going to do is bitch again about me living with Dracula, then I'm leaving." She snapped. "We've already discussed how, _legally_, and _try_ to wrap your tiny mind around the concept of a world where breaking the law is actually a serious offence, Dracula is my guardian." There were snorts of laughter from the ghosts and Zara's mouth turned down in a grimace at their laughter. This had stopped being funny when…well, it was never funny. "Yes, I know how you all find it amusing how _Dracula _is _my _guardian, but try to control your laughter here. Anyways, he has complete, _legal _control of me until I legally become an adult in three days. So there's nothing I can do about living with him right now." Anna's eyes narrowed as she pegged Zara with a hateful glare.

"But he's _Dracula._" Zara rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Yes, we _know _already!! Every time I come here, all you can say is '_but it's Dracula! But it's Dracula!'_" The younger mocked mercilessly. "Get a _life_, will you?"

"I _can't _get a life because the monster you're living with _killed _me!!! And you're not even _trying _to avenge us!! You've turned into a monster just like _him!_" Anna let a small smirk settle over her ghostly features. "You were too weak to even stop the double curse you're under. You're not a _true _Valerious. Why, by the age of seven, everyone here, save you and your cowardly mother, had killed their first monster!! They had already learned of our sacred task to kill Dracula, but you're too weak to even scratch him!" Zara's teal eyes widened at the force of Anna's hate, tears collecting at their corners until the half-breed shut them tight and shook her head back and forth to clear the pain from her head before her eyes snapped open again.

She glared coldly at the older version of herself, the one that she'd welcomed so warmly at their last meeting. "Well I'm sorry if I wasn't raised to be a prejudiced, close-minded _git_like the rest of you lot." She hissed, feeling her anger –both at herself, them, and a certain vampire whose fault this whole scene was- coil within her. "So what if I'm doubly cursed? So what if I'm living under his roof? At least I actually _have_a life!! At least my entire existence hasn't been consumed with the obsession that yours was!" Anna recoiled as if slapped. Anger distorted her beautiful features, twisting them almost beyond recognition.

"I don't know why we even _bothered_trying to save you." She hissed back, either not noticing or ignoring how much she was imitating her cousin at the moment, and then turned on her heel and disappeared into the crowd of ghosts, shouldering and pushing anyone that got in her way aside.

Zara watched her go, ignoring the blood dripping from the cuts she'd gouged in her palms with her nails, her eyes golden and her breath coming in short, angry pants. She turned on her own heel and stalked off in the other direction, back towards the lone corner of the white plane that was pitch black. As the shadows enveloped her once more, she let go and sobbed where no one could see her.

**A/N: These nightmare/dream scenes are really easy to write, because they always end up so short. And look!! I updated within a week!! It's a miracle!!! **

**I **_**really**_** wanted to post the Halloween ball chapter yesterday, but this one isn't even done yet, and there's one **_**long **_**chapter between this one and that one. **

**Review!!! (please!!!) **


	19. Dracula's Answer

**A/N: I love snow!! Which is strange, because I hate the cold, but I love snow, and with cold, there is no snow. And I'm sorry for the long delay. I REALLY need to get a new computer. **

**Thanks to Shoysrock, ****Aviarianna O Lorien****, Miss Hiss and Gem of the Stars for reviewing chapter 17 and up. And special thanks to ****nautikitti**** for telling me about the mixed up lyrics and to Crimson Streaks for one of the most inspiring reviews I've ever gotten. Thank you all and everyone else who has stuck with this fic!! **

Dracula's Answer

_Zara watched Anna go, ignoring the blood dripping from the cuts she'd gouged in her palms with her nails, her eyes golden and her breath coming in short, angry pants. She turned on her own heel and stalked off in the other direction, back towards the lone corner of the white plane that was pitch black. As the shadows enveloped her once more, she let go and sobbed where no one could see her. _

"Augh!!" The last Valerious jolted upright, her chest heaving and her cheeks wet with tears as she stared, disoriented, at the purple of her room. Her breathing slowed and she childishly rubbed at her tear-blurred eyes with the heels of her hands.

Then she sighed and stared listlessly at the tangled silk sheets that were wrapped around her lower half, not bothering to resist the melancholic depression that was sweeping over her as she remembered what had just taken place. Her family thought she was a monster. She had blown up in Anna's face. They probably all hated her now.

Her shoulders began to shake again as tears began to stream down her face. She was sobbing, her nose was running and her eyes were probably bloodshot and her hair probably looked like something out of a horror move.

Her life _sucked. _And that was without mentioning that she was living with a psychotic vampire that had killed off the rest of her family and planned on making her his undead whore for the rest of, well, _forever_. She had lost most of her humanity and was now the monster her cousin had accused her of being: half vampire, half werewolf, and only the slightest bit human. And now she'd dragged her best friend into this mess.

Now her entire frame was shaking as silent tears slid down her face and self-hate consumed her. Damn it, she _hated _crying!! She was such a weakling!! "A…a weak little monster." She blubbered, her fists balling up in frustration as she slammed them into the bed. She took her anger and hate out on her bed for a few minutes until a sharp, cold scent entered her nose and she glared at the vampire with bloodshot eyes.

"Go_ away_." She groaned, the pathetic rasping noise ending in a hiss. "I don't want to think about you right now." Confusion flashed briefly in his azure eyes and she could now sense the shadow that swept quickly through her mind and easily brushing aside the wall she'd hastily tried to throw up against his probe.

"Ah," He simply said, allowing a small amount of sadness to sweep into his face. "It hurts, doesn't it? Being rejected by the ones you love for being yourself." All her pain and hate disappeared as Zara gaped at him. No. He couldn't have said what she just thought he said. He was a heartless monster. There was no way he could sum up her pain just like that- "It's like your heart's been torn out; like there's a gaping hole in your chest that bleeds and bleeds, never stopping, always aching." A whimper (Oh, _God_ no. She did _not _just whimper) pushed through her abused throat as she teared up again.

"How…?" But she knew the answer just as he knew the question.

"It's been hurting for four hundred years." He simply said. Silence enveloped the room as they stared at each other.

"Where…" Zara's voice faltered and she waited a moment before trying again. "Where do we go from here?" The rest of the question hung, unsaid, in the air.

"I'm not sure." He simply said. Both were confused, longing for the other to do something, _anything _that would restore order to the jumbled mess their lives had become. If Dracula started bossing her around in an effort to make her get ready to leave for the ball, or if Zara threw something at him in response, then they could go on pretending that nothing was wrong.

But nothing happened. The mess remained. As did the silence.

They now could no longer meet one another's gaze and Zara picked at the quilt with still-trembling fingers as Dracula crossed the room and ran one bored hand over the carvings on a bookshelf. The silence stretched on, broken only when they heard the radio click on in the next room. Ala was awake.

"I think," The vampire's cool, clipped tone was a bit hesitant for once as he paused from where he now stood a few feet to Zara's right. "That it would be best for us to continue on as we have. At least while your friend is here. After the ball on Sunday, we can start to work things out." Zara gave a small grin that only widened as he continued; now refusing to look at her, almost as if he were embarrassed. "And I'll be getting dresses for both you and Miss Alana."

"I'd like that." He almost seemed to flush, and was about to leave when a smaller, warmer hand covered one of his. He turned to see Zara giving him a happy smile that, albeit sad, was warm and unabashed. "Thank you." An odd look in his eyes, Vladislaus opened his mouth to say something, only to jump when Zara did (though he would deny it later) as Alana pounded on the connecting door.

"I'm giving you two minutes to wake up, Zara!! Then I'm coming in with my markers!!!" There was a sound of giggling and the patter of feet walking away, followed by the sounds of the sink running.

Zara anticipated Dracula's question and answered before his mouth even opened. "If you don't wake up when she calls you, then she draws on your face with markers until you do. If she's in a bad enough mood, she'll use permanent ones." She pointed to a faint orange line on the shell of her right ear. "That's from when we were six and I wouldn't wake up so that we could go to the ice cream store." An ebony eyebrow was raised and an amused smirk spread across dead lips.

"Remind me never to go to sleep around her." Zara chuckled and stretched her arms out in front of her.

"Oh, I dunno. Just think how funny you would look with a permanent pink mustache." She teased, laughing outright as Dracula deadpanned,

"I would rip off my lip before I allowed that to stay."

The sink stopped running.

"Zara? I'm giving you ten seconds!! Ten…nine…" Zara's teal eyes widened and she jumped off of the bed, pushing an amused Dracula towards the other door.

"Get out!!" She hissed in a panicked whisper. "She already suspects that something's going on between us!! If she sees you in here-!" Her back was suddenly to the door and a cool hand was cupping her cheek. Dracula smirked down at her.

"_Is _there something going on between us, Princess?" Zara turned red and her eyes darted away from his face as she pressed herself further against the wooden door.

"I…I…oh, you tell me!" She whined. "Now, _go _before-" Cold, gentle lips pressed lightly, almost questioningly, against her own. Her heart seemed to stop dead in her chest, and then suddenly restart and begin hammering against her throat as Dracula's lips moved lightly, wonderfully, against her own, which were suddenly responding.

Zara had kissed and been kissed before (after all, she _was _seventeen,) but all of those kisses paled considerably in comparison to _this_. And Dracula's lips were barely moving over hers.

But he kept the kiss chaste, and it was over in seconds. Seconds that felt like hours, but seconds none the less. Zara stared up at the vampire, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wondering and glazed over in pleasure.

"I…wow…" Her exhalation of breath was a cross between a sigh and a gasp. "That was…" The door began to creek open and they both jumped at the same time, their eyes, both confused, locking for only a moment before he was gone and Ala was there.

"…um, Zara? Why are you glaring at me?"

Zara shook her head like a dog, clearing her thoughts, and smiled at her friend, all of the gloom she'd been feeling earlier gone in place of a happy, bubbling energy that was too big to be contained in her body.

"I'm not! Now hurry up and get ready! You have to help me pack my stuff!!"

* * *

Several hours later, while Alana rooted around in the kitchen for a snack, Zara had a hurried conversation with Dracula.

"How are we going to get there? You can't fly us, and won't it take too long by car?" Dracula gave her a smug little smirk.

"And _why_, my dear, would someone as exulted and all-powerful as _I _wish to travel by means of something as everyday and _normal _as a car?" Zara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"And God forbid someone accuses _you_ of being normal." She huffed, but a smile matching his in smugness played across her lips. His smirk turned a bit predatory and he took a half-step towards the teen, towering over her.

_I hate how he can do that…_

_**I know. That's why I do it. **_Zara's scowl deepened and she glared up several inches at the taller vampire.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to root around in my head?"

_**At least one more time.**_ She slapped him on the arm.

"Stop."

_**I don't think so, my dear. **_Zara's scowl evaporated into an exasperated sigh and she set her hands on her hips, leaning forwards to glare up at him.

"Why are you being so childish?" Dracula's eyes turned contemplative and he stepped forwards, so close that her nose was almost touching his Adam's apple. She sucked in a surprised breath and took a half step back to stare him in the face.

"To tell you the truth," His voice was pitched low, and still held half of the ringing quality to its silken tone that was present when he spoke in her head. "I'm not exactly sure." His head cocked slightly to the side, a habit unconsciously picked up from one too many forays into Zara's head (she had gotten it from Ala.)

The vampire took another half step forwards, making the werewolf take one back as well. She couldn't look at his chest or his face without turning an embarrassing shade of red, so Zara focused on the collar of his military-style jacket, pitch black against the pure white of his skin.

She licked her lips; it was a nervous, unconscious gesture of hers that he didn't miss. It took a few tries to force her voice past the lump in her throat. "W-why-?" She cleared her throat and tried again, this time managing to meet his gaze. "Why aren't you sure?"

Another half-step, another retreat. Now more than ever, Vladislaus could see the differences between her and Anna. Where Anna would have stood her ground and gone toe-to-toe with him, her anger-filled mud-brown eyes narrowed in a hateful glare all the while, Zara retreated, her teal orbs wide with curiosity, apprehension and a little bit of the unidentifiable emotion that both of them had expressed earlier.

A pale, bloodless hand came up to play with a stray chocolate curl. "Because, my dear," He enjoyed the brief flash of annoyance that brought more green to her eyes. "Ever since you've arrived," He stopped and frowned, angry and annoyed at himself for not being able to find the right words. So he settled for a sigh and leaning down so that his nose was almost touching her darker one.

Zara's breath caught and a dull flush rose in a band across her cheeks and over her nose as she stared into the unreadable azure depths of his eyes. The thought …_pretty… _vaguely floated across the back of her mind as she stared at them, and then hoped that he hadn't heard that, because he'd kill her if he had.

She bit back the urge to laugh and tried to concentrate on what Dracula was saying. Except he wasn't saying anything. He was just…staring. The same look as earlier was in his eyes, and the hand in her hair slid around to the back of her neck, angling her face up towards his own.

His breath ghosted across her cheek. "Ever since you've arrived, my dear…"

"Nothing's been the same."

Both Zara and Dracula jerked, the former jumping away with a flaming red face.

Maria was leaning on the banister, a feather duster forgotten in her hand as she smirked at them, her emerald-gold eyes laughing (also most likely at them.) "Oh, I'm sorry." She chuckled. "Did I interrupt something?" She laughed outright as Zara squirmed and fidgeted, and Vladislaus glared disdainfully down his nose at her, but there was a black-red tinge to his cheeks that ruined his snobbish image. "Your friend's looking for you." She informed Zara after she'd had enough entertainment/blackmail material, but a mischievous gleam stayed in her eyes as she pointedly looked from Zara to Dracula and back again. "Unless, of course, you _really _want to get back to that 'conversation' you two were-"

Zara was gone before Maria had even finished her sentence.

Dracula pinned the blonde werewolf with an icy glare, but she just smiled innocently at him and his expression changed to what would be called a pout on a lesser man. (But if you accused _him _of pouting, you would be dead before you realized that you'd said the wrong thing.) "Things were going just fine without you." He grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest. "And I don't see why you continue to insist on deluding her about your being only a servant." Maria carelessly tossed the feather duster aside and ambled over to the vampire.

"Well, if Zara knew that I was the head Alpha of the werewolves, she'd be intimidated by me." She stared up at him, her green-gold eyes for once serious. "And that won't do because I want to be here to help her through the change." Dracula opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "Not only did the last cub I left in your care go crazy and completely lose himself to his wolf, but Zara isn't just a regular werewolf. She's a mix of wolf, vampire, and human." She pinned Dracula with a semi-serious glare. "Not to mention that she's _also _the last member of the family you've been trying to kill off for the hundred years that I've known you. If I left her alone with you and a castle full of young, hormone-driven, _male _werewolves, God or Satan only knows what would happen to the poor child."

"I'm not _that _bad." The vampire protested, but Maria only scoffed.

"Says you. Now don't you have a plane to call for?" And she turned and strolled back towards the staircase.

"Isn't that what I have 'servants' for?" A phone was plucked out of its cradle in the wall and thrown at the werewolf's retreating back, but by the time she whirled around and plucked it neatly from the air, Dracula was already at the top of the stairs behind her. "You do it." And he was gone, leaving an amused and slightly annoyed Maria staring up at where he'd last stood.

"Lazy bastard." She muttered good-heartedly as she dialed the phone and held it to her ear. "Hello, John. Nice to talk to you again, too. Listen, Master Vladdy needs his plane."

* * *

**TWO HOURS LATER**

"Why isn't the plane here yet?"

"Because it isn't."

"But _whyyy?_"

"Because it _isn't_."

"But-"

"If you whine another why, I will hurt you."

"But _Zaraaaaa…_ow!!" Ala rubbed her head where the book had connected and pouted at her friend. "The plane was supposed to get here an _hour _ago! And your uncle is nowhere to be found!" Zara rolled her eyes, but she was the tiniest bit worried. It wasn't like Dracula to be _this _late…

Very faintly, so soft that she wasn't quite sure that she'd really heard it, Zara heard a gun go off and the faint sounds of a scuffle and shouting. Her head turned towards the castle behind them. "Did you hear that?" Ala blinked at her.

"Hear what?" Zara frowned, her eyes still locked on the castle.

"I could've sworn…" A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped, a scream rising up in her throat, only to die on her lips when the person behind her spoke.

"We need to leave. _Now_." Zara whipped around to glare up at Dracula, her mouth opening to chastise him for both being late and scaring her, but the burned arm hanging limp and temporarily useless at his side and the streak of blood (not his, judging by it's crimson hue) on his face stopped her.

"Dra-Uncle, what-?" There was another gunshot and Dracula shoved her and Ala to the ground, behind their piled bags and out of the bullet's path before disappearing. While Ala shrieked questions, Zara cautiously peeked up from behind the pile of bags to see who'd shot at them. "_Shit._" It was Van Helsing.

"Zara, who's that?" Gabriel was now running towards the airstrip, his gun still held in his hand.

"Someone you don't want to mess with." He'd seen her, and an almost relieved look came over the monster hunter's face as he changed direction, now coming towards them. Zara groaned in distress. "Hurry up, would you?" She muttered towards the vampire.

"Did you say something?" Zara shook her head, pulling back from the bags and looking around for any sign of Dracula or the – oh. She blinked up at the approaching plane, still a dot in the distance.

_Hurry up, would you? _She thought crossly at whoever was piloting the stupid thing.

Something grabbed the Valerious again, crushing her ribs in a bruising hug. She gave a strangled gasp that sounded like the dying gurgle of an animal. "Can't…" She choked out and painfully drew another rasping breath after a few heart-stopping, head-spinning, oxygen-less moments. "Breathe…" The bands of iron crushing her released, and Zara crumpled, only for an equally strong grip to close around her arm.

"I'm sorry," Van Helsing murmured, a happy grin still on his face as he suddenly scooped her up and twirled her around in the air. "I'm just so happy that you're still alive!!" Ala was staring at the man like he had a few screws loose.

"That-that's nice," Zara wheezed, the world spinning before her eyes. "Now, could you put me down?"

"Right. Sorry." Van Helsing put her down and she almost collapsed. Alana rushed up and supported her, glaring fiercely up at the slightly surprised monster hunter. As soon as Zara was a bit steadier on her feet, Alana placed herself between her friend and the monster hunter.

"Who the hell are _you_?" She hissed, positioning herself between Zara and Gabriel, who blinked in surprise a few moments before opening his mouth.

"I'm Gabriel Van Helsing," He said, giving Zara a questioning look that said 'She doesn't know? Why haven't you told her?'

Zara snapped out of her daze and mouthed 'Don't tell her' over her friend's head. He frowned.

"Oh really? And what exactly are you do - OH MY GOD!!" Ala had seen the gun that Gabriel carried and could only be described as "one big-ass piece of shit" and she screamed.

"What?" The monster hunter sounded a bit cross, but when he saw her terrified expression and followed her hazel eyes down to his weapon, he looked a bit sheepish. "Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_." The blonde snarled, still trembling in fear. "Why the _hell _are you carrying that thing around?!" If the situation hadn't been so dire and Zara hadn't been so worried about Ala and Gabe finding out that she wasn't human anymore, the Valerious would have laughed at the sight of the great Van Helsing being talked down by a girl about a foot shorter and several centuries younger than him.

But the situation _was _dire, and Zara's breath caught in her throat as she realized that stupid, deluded Gabriel Van Helsing was about to blab to Ala. She stared at him helplessly, not able to do anything. (After all, if she yelled for him to shut up or reached over her friend to slap his mouth shut, it would lead to awkward, unanswerable questions.)

_Shut up. _She tried to tell him with her eyes. His mouth opened. Her imagination spat up images of Ala turning on her and calling her monster and Zara felt queasy. _Shut up. _She tried to tell him. _Shut up, or-_

_The blonde girl was so annoying. Why wouldn't she drop the gun thing? Didn't she know there was a vampire around here somewhere? Where was that murdering bastard anyways? I need to kill him before I forget everything again. And why hasn't Anna-I mean Zara- told the blonde about everything?_

She was somehow looking down at the face of a very angry Ala. How was that possible? Wasn't she standing behind her friend? And she was sure that she wasn't this tall. Sure she had a few inches on the blonde, but this was ridiculous. It was like a foot! And she was pretty sure that she hadn't been wearing this many layers. She felt like she was about to fall over from all the extra weight. Oops…she'd dropped whatever she'd been holding in her right hand.

Reflexively, Zara looked down to see what she'd dropped (She didn't think that she'd been holding something before) and froze when she saw Van Helsing's gun at her booted feet. Waitasecond. She hadn't been wearing boots! Panicked, Zara's head shot up, searching for Ala. She'd forgotten her newfound height and looked too high, only to see a pair of blank teal eyes.

A nasty, absurd suspicion was beginning to curl in the back of the Valerious's mind as she, still shocked and confused, looked from the teal eyes to the dark curls, to the peachy skin (her eyes instinctively seeking out and finding the annoying pimple she'd slathered with concealer that morning. She congratulated herself for doing such a good job under such hasty circumstances-)

_Waitasecond. _

Zara was staring at _herself_.

The shock seemed to snap her out of whatever had been going on, and Zara found herself back at her old height (hopefully in her own body,) staring over the back of Ala's head at a spaced-out Van Helsing.

"Whoa…" Her surprised exhalation was too soft for Alana to hear, and the blonde continued to glower up at the just coming-to monster hunter. _What was __**that**_

But she didn't have time to contemplate, because suddenly Dracula was there, grabbing his one-time friend by the scruff of his coat and throwing him an impossible distance. Ala screamed, but as soon as his electrified eyes landed on her, she collapsed. Zara fought the stiffness in her limbs and just barely managed to catch her friend before she hit the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" The two with vampire blood shouted at each other.

"Why were you just standing there?!"

"What did you do to her?!"

They just glared at each other for a minute before Zara decided to be the bigger person (vampire. Whatever) and relented, sighing as she pulled her friend upright.

"Thanks, I suppose." Whatever rant he'd had ready was apparently derailed as Zara looked around expectantly and he just gaped (in a very dignified manner, of course.) "Wasn't there supposed to be a plane?"

* * *

They had their alibi all worked out. Ala had fallen asleep while waiting for the plane, and Zara and her uncle had carried her aboard while she was still out and here they were now, only twenty minutes left between them and Budapest.

The silence was suffocating, so Zara broke it with the topic she'd been brooding over since they'd taken off thirty minutes ago.

"What's it called when you accidentally go into someone's head?" Dracula had obviously not been expecting this, and it took a second or two longer than it normally did for him to reply.

"That would be telepathy, my dear." He gave her a quizzical look. "And what, may I ask, is the reason for you to be asking about it?" Zara fidgeted in her seat.

"I think I might have accidentally done it to Van Helsing back at the airstrip." The words were mumbled and tangled in their rush to get out, but he somehow understood.

A grin split his face and he chuckled. "It's common in new vampires. The accidental part, that is. I assume that you were only looking out of his eyes and had only marginal access to his thoughts?" Zara nodded mutely. "It's completely normal in fledglings at your present stage."

"Fledglings?"

"Newborn or about to be reborn vampires." Zara nodded slowly, a disbelieving look on her face.

"Ooookay…" She was giving him _that _look again. The one that was practically screaming 'you're a fruitloop.' And the one that was _really _annoying.

"Look, _I _didn't come up with it." Dracula snapped, but Zara rolled her eyes. The look now said 'Whatever. Your excuses are pathetic.'

_**Just be quiet. Go to sleep or something. **_Zara jumped at his voice in her head, but didn't feel like exerting the effort it would take to glare at the vampire. It'd be wasted on him, anyways.

"Yes your highness." She muttered, but did as he suggested, turning to rest her head on the window. She fell asleep to the sight of the European countryside flying away beneath them.

* * *

"So…why are we here again?"

They had landed and dumped off their luggage at a ridiculously ornate palace. Then Dracula had to forcibly drag the two gaping girls back into the limousine so that they could make their next stop.

And Zara _would not shut up _about said stop. Especially after learning (via mental communication) that they were in a completely vampiric section of the city.

"You are here to get dresses for the ball tomorrow."

"Well, yes. But _here_?" He could understand her reluctance. He really could.

_Lady Madeline's All-Age Dress Emporium_ read the swirly, gold-on-pink sign. It nauseated Dracula just to look at it. He had had unpleasant dealings with this place and it's…enthusiastic owner.

"Yes, here." The door opened and Dracula stepped aside, leaving the girls vulnerable to the inevitable attack from within the store.

"Oh, are you not just the most _precious_ little things?!" Came a squeal from within, and Zara and Ala stared up at the, well, _massive_woman that emerged from the depths of the store before them with identical expressions of horror, both thinking: _Oh god, save me now._

Lady Madeline was a rather…spherical vampire with tightly curled gold tresses pinned to her fleshy, undead head in a fashion that belonged several centuries in the past. Her taste in dress was likely outdated, it being a frilly, Victorian era concoction of various shades of pink and white trimmed in gold. She was also (thanks to what nature had given her and with the aid of a ridiculously high pair of shoes hidden under the frills) about seven feet tall, which meant that she towered over even Dracula.

"Oh, Lord Dracula, it is such an _honor_ to be entrusted with your flesh and blood!!" And Zara was suddenly being crushed in an icy, heavily perfumed hug. She gasped for air, her eyes frantically seeking out Alana, and then locking with Dracula's, who seemed torn between laughter and relief that _he_ wasn't the object of Lady Madeline's affection.

"Help." She gasped to him, pleading to be rescued.

Fortunately, Lady Madeline dropped Zara before she died of asphyxiation and turned to Ala, pinching the blonde's cheeks and exclaiming over her hair, not noticing the lone human's expression of horror. Then the massive vampire turned to Dracula, but he was gone.

"Coward." Zara muttered under her breath, knowing he would hear as the pink woman ushered (in other words, _dragged_) the two teenagers into her lair, already speculating about what color and style dresses would be "just perfect!" for each of them.

* * *

Never before had shopping been this painful.

Sure it was great to have an unlimited amount of time to try on dresses (priced way beyond what either teen would have been able to afford under normal circumstances) in every imaginable hue and style, made from every cloth in the world. Some were originals.

Ok, so being immortal definitely had its advantages.

Zara ended up in a Victorian dress that fell off of her shoulders and ended at her elbows in a froth of lace. It bared several inches of skin south of her collarbone, and had a three-leafed clover-like cut out in the direct center of her chest, which was, instead of the dark blue-green color of the rest of the gown, was a sort of lace fishnet of the same color, with a circle of regular material square in it's center. The bodice of the dress had subtle, raised patterns on it, swirling flowers that, if you weren't looking hard enough, seemed to not be there. From below the bodice, the rest of the silk gown fell in beautiful folds down to her feet, where it covered all but the tips of her toes.

Lady Madeline had procured white silk gloves from somewhere, exclaiming over the necessity of "covering that nasty scar." The gloves went up to her elbows, effectively covering the physical proof of Zara's new status as one of the lycanthrope population.

The rotund vampire had also coerced the Valerious into a pair of heels (that same shade of green-blue, the slightest bit darker than her eyes) that laced halfway up her claves up with silk ribbons and were so tall that Zara was sure they would be the death of her. (In reality, they were only three or four inches, but it seemed to Zara that they lifted her several feet into the air. But they still managed to give her a mild case of vertigo.)

The pink vampire also gifted her with a pair of beautiful, dangling earrings that were half the length of her neck, and were each a cluster of blue and green stones of gold wire.

Ala, on the other hand, ended up in a peach-gold strapless dress that made her look (if possible) even more stunning than she was naturally. (Zara hoped that the hungry look in Lady Madeline's eyes was nothing serious.) The bodice was pure peach, the raised patterns more noticeable than on Zara's, curling around in a beautiful design. The double-layered skirt slowly faded to gold, so that the very bottom edge was a rich ocher. The top layer of the skirt was folded tastefully, dipping down in the center, gathered up at the sides, and dropping down to the floor with the rest of the dress in the back. The second layer was uniform, the folds falling evenly all around the dress.

She too had gloves, hers a pale gold and reaching only to her wrists. Her shoes were more traditional heels, covering her toes and the sides of her feet (none of the ridiculous ((in Zara's opinion)) ribbons that adorned Zara's) and raised her exactly four and three quarters inches. In the way of jewelry, she was given a mediumly sized pair of plain gold hoops that had triangles of lacey gold dripping off of their lowest points, ending in two perfectly round white pearls. Her necklace was yet more lacey gold, circling the base of her neck in a beautiful ring of thin gold and alabaster pearls.

"This is beautiful," Zara sighed, looking at herself in a mirror. That didn't even look like her!

"Yeah," Ala breathed from across the room, admiring her image in her own mirror. "How can your uncle pay for all of this?"

Lady Madeline shot Zara yet another 'she doesn't know?' look. Zara was getting _really _tired of getting that look.

"Well, my dears, that does not matter. But you will be coming back tomorrow for the full make over, yes?" Ala was easily and successfully distracted by this promise and laughed giddily, clapping her hands in joy.

Zara grumpily wondered why Dracula was going to all this trouble and _really _wished that he wouldn't. She had no desire to play Barbie Doll to a vampire as…unique as Lady Madeline.

And so, after an hour or so of fretting and cursing (on Zara's part) of trying to remove the two girls from their dresses, they retreated from the shop with a promise to return the next day.

* * *

In Zara's opinion, the next day came too soon. Both her and Ala had collapsed as soon as they'd gotten back to the mansion, and were awoken _much _too early so that they could be whisked back to Lady Madeline's lair.

Of course, it really wasn't all _that _bad. Because after all, who could (or would) argue against a totally free complete spa and makeover treatment? Of course, knowing that everyone around them –even the small child massaging that was massaging Zara's neck- was a vampire. The neck thing would have been more unnerving if she hadn't been wearing the necklace-collar thing. She still hated it, though. (Even though Dracula had somehow switched for a teal one while she was asleep.)

But, come sunset, both Ala and Zara looked like something right off the pages of a fashion magazine.

"Wow," Was all Ala cold say. "Wow,"

Zara was speechless as she shamelessly gaped at the beautiful stranger's reflection in the mirror. The vampires had somehow tamed her wild curls into an elegantly messy bun that dripped a cascading strand of artfully arranged curls to her bared shoulders. Her makeup was better than what she could have done on her best day, and her nails were painted perfectly.

"I…whoa," Was all the brunette could say as she stared at herself.

"Your uncle is the _best __**ever**_." Ala proclaimed from across the room. The beautiful reflection proved itself to really be Zara by rolling its eyes.

"Don't let _him _here you say it, or…whoa, Ala." Ala giggled as Zara blinked. _That _was Ala?

The normally gorgeous blonde looked like a supermodel. Her golden hair fell in a solid, ironed straight curtain to the middle of her back, with it cut in an angle to perfectly frame her heart-shaped face.

"Whoa yourself, silly." Ala giggled again, but the look of awe returned to her face. "Really, Zara, you look _beautiful_." Zara gave a decidedly unladylike snort.

"_I _look beautiful? Look who's talking!"

"My dears, you both look beautiful. You also both look very late." Both turned to see a smirking Dracula standing in the doorway. "Now, if we may?"

As they exited to the waiting limo, Zara hissed to him, "I can't believe you left us with _her _all day!" He only smirked.

"Yes, I forgot to warn you. Lady Madeline can get quite…enthusiastic."

"_No_, really? I never would have guessed." Now he chuckled.

"Your sarcasm wounds me, my dear." And he closed the door behind him and the limo took off.

* * *

**Well, I think that was good. Was it good after two months of nothing? Well, hopefully people will review so that I can find out. The links to the pictures their dresses were based off of are below. Just get rid of the spaces. **

_**Ala: **_http :// www. bridalchalet. com / Gallery / bridalgown / ballroom / product. Html ? id item aDBBuVvbvh

_**Zara: **_http :// www. bridalchalet. com / backup / VictorianLandingPage / index. html (the second one down)


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